Identity I: Draw Phase
by MyAibou
Summary: Post canon, sequel to the Revival series. On the eve of a Duel Monsters tournament in London, Yugi's latest foe strikes again, hitting very close to home.
1. The Nameless Pharaoh

**IDENTITY**

**Disclaimer:** If I owned _Yu-gi-oh!_ and its characters instead of Kazuki Takahashi, would I be posting this for free online? No. I'd be out on a trip around the world spending my royalty checks.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive content, mild violence (of the battling-cartoon-monsters variety).

**Pairings and Warnings:** Yugi x Téa (x Atem). Kaiba x Kisara. Joey x Mai. Tristan x Serenity. Some Bakura x Marik (_shonen ai_ mostly; nothing very graphic.) Puzzleshippy stuff if you squint really hard. And yeah, I use the dub names. It's how I got to know and love these characters. But the continuity pulls from the dub, the sub, and the manga and exists in the same universe as all my other YGO stories. Sequel to the _Revival_ series.

**Acknowledgements: **I have a lot of people to thank for helping me make this fic suck less than it would've otherwise. First, to **ArcherRat **and** Julietvalcouer** for their very helpful feedback in a writer's workshop. Would that every writing teacher had ArcherRat's gift for constructive criticism mixed with enough encouragement to make you _want_ to improve instead of run away screaming.

I also owe a big thanks to **Lucidscreamer** for her tireless efforts in researching ancient Egyptian info for me. Without her, the Egyptian stuff would be completely wrong and unbelievably lame. Anything I got right in that regards is thanks to her; any mistakes are completely my own.

I really don't have enough words for the debt of gratitude I owe **Dragondancer1014**, who is not only a _fantastic_ beta-tester, but has been wonderful in helping me brainstorm ideas when I got stuck, encouraging me through some nasty writer's block, and just being incredibly supportive. Some of the best "little details" are because of ideas she had. I couldn't have finished this without her.

And last but never least, my biggest thanks goes to **The Spouse **and** The Kids**, who put up with my obsession with this story for 18 months—about a year longer than I'd planned on working it. A fanfic writer couldn't ask for a more enabling spouse or more patient kids. ("Not now, Mommy's _writing_!") Too bad I'm not making any money for this so I can pay for their therapy. Although… it is their fault for getting me hooked on the stupid show in the first place.

* * *

**Part I  
Draw Phase**

_This is the first phase. The player whose turn it is…draws 1 card from the top of their Deck. A player with no cards left in their Deck and unable to draw loses the Duel. After you draw, Trap Cards or Quick-Play Spell Cards can be activated before proceeding to the Standby Phase._  
—Yu-gi-oh! Trading Card Game Official Rulebook

* * *

**1. The Nameless Pharaoh**

There was power in a Name. Romeo and Juliet could lie to themselves that names didn't matter, that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but if a rose had no name at all? It would be nothing. Worse than nothing, it couldn't exist beyond its fleeting lifetime because it couldn't be remembered.

With a Name, however, it could be immortal.

He had several names. There was the one he was given at birth, of course, but that wasn't his Real Name, the thing that connected his spirit, his _Ka_, to those that came before him. His Real Name was already immortal, known by anyone with even a passing knowledge of Egyptian history, a Name shared by the greatest of the pharaohs: Ramesses.

Today, however, he was using neither his Real Name nor his birth name, but one he created for himself to employ in certain business dealings.

"What you ask is very difficult, Mr. Monarch." The mercenary sat on the other side of his desk, hands folded. Dressed in a black tunic and a black turban tied around his head, he almost disappeared into the shadows cast by the flickering torches that lined the walls of the stone chamber. "Both of the tombs are well-guarded twenty-four hours, with security during the winter holidays even tighter, and they are closed to tourists until the restoration is finished."

Monarch leaned back in his leather seat—one of the few luxuries in this underground dwelling. He tapped his fingers on the chair's arms. "I'm hardly a tourist."

"No, of course not," the mercenary hastened to say, bowing his head in apology. "I was merely pointing out that tombs that are open to the public are easier to access than those that are not."

Monarch narrowed his eyes. "Are you offering me excuses?"

The other man's thin lips curled into an ugly smile revealing stained yellow teeth. "I have no need to offer excuses." He glanced behind him, motioning with a jerk of his head to one of the four men lined up against the wall near the doorway. Like their leader, they were all dressed in black tunics and pants and had black turbans tied around their heads. The one who had been summoned stepped forward carrying a burlap sack. He placed it on the desk before Monarch with a muffled thud, then retreated two steps behind his leader.

Monarch raised his eyebrow. "And this is?"

"An offering. To show you we are more than capable of what you ask of us."

Monarch didn't move or so much as nod in acceptance. After an uncomfortable moment, the mercenary signaled to his underling again, who stepped quickly back to the desk and pulled open the sack, tugging it down to reveal an earthenware jar. It was simple, with no hieroglyphics decorating its sides, but its lid was fashioned into the likeness of a jackal's head.

When Monarch still didn't react, the mercenary's smile widened slightly, looking more nervous than cocky now. "A canopic jar," he said, hitching his smile still wider.

"Yes, I know what it is. Why is it here?"

His smile faltered. "It holds the entrails of A—the Pharaoh." He'd corrected himself before Monarch could so much as twitch his cheek. "With this, you could—"

"I know very well what I could do with the Nameless Pharaoh's entrails. I don't remember asking you to retrieve them for me."

"But you wish—"

"To do a thorough job at the appropriate time." Monarch glowered at the mercenary, who lowered his head. The underling took another several steps back, but Monarch kept his attention focused on the leader. "Has it not occurred to you that the authorities will notice the missing jar and increase security?"

The mercenary took a moment to compose himself. "Of course we thought of that, Mr. Monarch. We replaced it with a replica."

"Which will somehow go unnoticed by those doing the restoration work?"

"Most of the restoration work is being done by westerners and is on a western holiday schedule. With your Christmas falling on a Saturday, the workers will get Monday as a holiday, meaning no work will be done between now and Tuesday morning, and even then the work will be concentrated on the antechamber, not the burial chamber. It is highly unlikely that anyone will discover the replacement before you arrive Tuesday night and, as you can see, we are quite capable of getting into the tombs. We will have no difficulty bringing you there as you requested."

"I should hope not."

The mercenary shifted in his seat, gathering his courage. Monarch raised his eyebrows as if in polite inquiry. "You have something else you wish to say?"

He immediately sat still. "Sir, I would like once again to recommend that we not wait. With the restoration workers on holiday, now would be the best time—"

"And as I've told you before, timing is _my_ concern, not yours. There are many more factors than just ease of access into the tombs. Either you can accomplish the task on the appointed night or you cannot. Which is it?"

"We can, of course."

"Then there is nothing left to discuss. I will be leaving Luxor, but shall return Tuesday night. Meet me at the airport's executive terminal at ten o'clock." Monarch waited another moment. "You're dismissed."

The mercenary rose and then bowed. "Happy Christmas, Mr. Monarch." It was an obsequious deference to Monarch's native culture, as Christmas in Egypt was celebrated on the Coptic calendar and would not be for another two weeks. The underlings behind him bowed as well and they all filed out of the dark chamber.

As soon as they were gone, Monarch stood to examine the canopic jar more closely. He recognized it immediately, of course, having visited the tomb many times, and it did indeed belong to whom the mercenary claimed. Its lack of markings indicated the haste in which the jars had been prepared for a youthful pharaoh whose death had come so quickly and unexpectedly after his ascension to the throne. The jackal's head represented Duamutef, one of the four sons of Horus, and indicated that the contents of the jar would be the stomach of the Nameless Pharaoh.

In truth, he wasn't Nameless, not any more, although Monarch refused to dignify him by acknowledging his Name. It had been lost for millennia, its absence holding the Pharaoh hostage in a strange limbo of his own making, his soul neither able to move on to the afterlife nor condemned to Duat. But when the Name was found three years ago, the Pharaoh had finally gone on to the spirit world, taking with him the seven Millennium Items and sealing the door to the Shadow Realm and all the power it held. That marked the second time the Nameless Pharaoh had denied that power, which he himself had freely wielded, to those who had come after him.

Monarch clenched his jaw in anger. _Power that should have been mine._

_Power that _will_ be mine_.

Brushing his fingers along the outline of the jackal's head on the canopic jar's lid, he thought of the Pharaoh who should have remained Nameless and in limbo. Who was he to decide that those who came after should be denied that power? He was no one, nothing, not deserving of a Name.

His anger growing, Monarch got up from his desk and walked across the room to the large hearth at the far end of the chamber. It had been built primarily for ceremonial purposes, but even in Egypt, Christmas morning could be a little chilly, particularly in an underground cavern, and he'd had the fire lit for warmth. At the moment, however, he was more interested in the rack of tools beside the hearth. Pulling the heavy brass poker out of its holder, he hefted it like a cricket bat and crossed back to his desk. Without so much as breaking his stride, he swung the poker down onto the canopic jar. It made contact, smashing through the ancient pottery and its dried and remarkably well-preserved contents, sending chunks of ceramic and desiccated stomach flying in all directions.

* * *

"Other Me!"

Yugi Mutou sat up in bed, hands automatically reaching for the Millennium Puzzle he expected to be hanging at his chest. He experienced a moment of panic and confusion when he didn't feel the familiar weight of the heavy pyramid-shaped pendant he always wore around his neck on its thick steel chain. Disoriented, he groped for his bedpost to see if he'd hung the Puzzle there, only to realize not only was there no Puzzle, he wasn't even in his bedroom above his grandfather's game shop. And he wasn't alone—he could see the outline of another person curled up under the covers beside him. _Other Me?_

But no, that was ridiculous. His other self wasn't solid; he was a spirit who had lived thousands of years ago, a pharaoh of ancient Egypt who had sealed his soul into the Millennium Puzzle to save his kingdom and his people. Ever since Yugi had solved the Millennium Puzzle, the spirit of the Pharaoh had been living within him, sharing his body. He couldn't be a separate person lying beside him. So who was it?

The person in question rolled over in their sleep, turning toward him, and in the dim light filtering in through the window he could make out the dark brown hair and heart-shaped face of his oldest childhood friend. _Téa?_

Everything clicked into place then, and he knew where—and when—he was. Not a fifteen-year-old kid living with his grandfather above a game shop in Domino, Japan, but a twenty-year-old adult in his own penthouse apartment in San Francisco. And Téa Gardner, asleep beside him, was more than just his childhood friend; she was his girlfriend of seven months. She had her own apartment on the opposite side of the building, but she stayed here as often as not.

As for the Millennium Puzzle and his other self—

No, not his other self. Atem. His name was Atem, and he and the Millennium Puzzle were gone.

_But something's wrong._

Yugi shook his head, pushing that thought away. Nothing could be wrong, not with Atem anyway. He was where he belonged, in the afterlife—Yugi couldn't quite bring himself to think of him as dead, not really. But whatever words he wanted to put around it, it was over, finished, done. Atem was never coming back.

But something in his gut kept insisting something was _wrong_, and he felt Atem's absence like a hole in the pit of his stomach. Slowly, so as not to disturb Téa, he got out of bed and went over to the window. Pressing his head against the cool glass, he looked out at the lights of San Francisco. It was late Christmas Eve—or early Christmas morning, he wasn't sure which—and from his vantage place on the fortieth floor of Illusions Tower, a skyscraper situated on the edge of the financial district not far from Union Square in downtown, the lights of the city below had a sort of Christmas-tree feel to them. The effect was marred somewhat by the closer lights from the upper floors of the other tall buildings nearby, including the narrow spire of the Transamerica Pyramid a few blocks northeast. The building didn't look much like a pyramid to Yugi, but he got an odd sort of comfort from being able to see something even vaguely pyramid-shaped from his room. Tonight, however, its presence only highlighted the absence of the spirit that had once been a pharaoh of Egypt, and the hole inside him deepened until it became almost a physical pain. He put his hand to his abdomen and took a deep breath.

_Other Me…_

* * *

Monarch stepped back from his desk and the chaos of bits of pottery and ancient, mummified entrails. Leaning on the poker as if it were a gentleman's cane, he examined his handiwork. It had been a stupid thing to do, he knew, not because of the mess he'd made of the chamber—his servants would take care of that—but because it was not the optimal time for all the results he hoped to achieve, and it was quite possible this might tip his hand. Still, he could not deny the satisfaction he felt at the physical act of destruction.

_Soon. Very soon_, he thought, smiling to himself. After all, names weren't the only thing that held power, and doors thought locked forever could always be reopened.


	2. Anniversary

**2. Anniversary**

"It's a little late to be checking out the view, don't you think?"

Yugi turned around from the window to see Téa sitting up in bed. She looked beautiful in the light from the window, her head cocked slightly, soft brown hair just dusting her shoulders. A brush of bangs framed round, blue eyes that were regarding him with a hint of concern.

He offered her a rueful smile. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"It's okay." She tried on a teasing, half-grin in return. "But you know, Santa only comes if you're asleep."

He grimaced. "I'm not ten." The slight petulance in his voice belied his answer as he turned back toward the window. He'd been mistaken for a young child his entire teen and adult life, not only because of his short height—under five feet throughout high school—but because of his round face and big, wide violet eyes that gave him such an air of innocence. He was a little taller now and his eyes had just a bit of Atem's edge to them, but he still bristled when anyone treated him like a kid.

A moment later he felt her behind him. She wrapped her arms around his chest, resting her chin on his shoulder in silent apology. Even with the extra few inches he'd gained since high school, she was still a good inch or two taller than he—and that was when she wasn't wearing those chunky shoes she favored—but he liked the way they fit together. Feeling bad for snapping at her, he covered her hands with his own and leaned into her, pressing his cheek against hers. "I'm sorry."

She craned her neck over his shoulder and reached over to touch his face, gently brushing a loose strand of blond hair away from his eyes. It was her habitual gesture of intimacy, comforting in its familiarity. His rather distinctive hair made him instantly recognizable as the so-called "King of Games," with its tall, magenta-tipped black spikes standing out in wild contrast to the soft blond forelocks that drooped around his face. But when Téa touched his hair, he knew that to her he was just Yugi, the somewhat shy and quiet friend of her childhood. "You wanna tell me what's bothering you?"

He sighed, trying to make sense of the _wrongness_ he was feeling, but it was elusive, just out of his reach. "I'm not sure. Maybe it's all the holiday craziness."

She let out a little hiss of annoyance, settling her chin back on his shoulder. "It has been crazy, hasn't it? Pegasus has been running you ragged since Thanksgiving. Between that and finals, it's a wonder you can still stand."

This was true. Their boss, Maximillion Pegasus, the somewhat eccentric and flamboyant president of Industrial Illusions and creator of its wildly popular trading card game, Duel Monsters, seemed to think Christmas existed for the sole purpose of selling his products. As the Duel Monsters World Champion, Yugi was one of four professional gamers employed by Industrial Illusions to do just that. Basically a glorified salesman, he'd spent most of December at trade shows and small one-day tournaments showcasing the latest booster pack in order to entice kids into making Duel Monsters the top of their Christmas lists.

That was his official job description, anyway. His real job was a little more complicated than that, but dealing with dark powers and Shadow Games reminded him of Atem and that empty sense of wrongness. Since he couldn't get a handle on it, he didn't want to think about it, so he kept his thoughts focused on the more mundane aspects of his job. "At least the end is in sight. Once we get through the British Open tournament, things should lighten up." And tournaments were the part of the job he loved anyway. Whenever he strapped a Duel Disk onto his arm, he would lose himself in the cards and the strategies. It was the one place he felt completely at home, without any doubts about his ability to live up to the name Atem had made for them.

Téa snorted. "This is Pegasus we're talking about. I'm not holding my breath for him to lighten the schedule. Although you'd think he could've at least let up a little during your finals."

"He's a businessman. He doesn't care about my schoolwork."

"He should. You're a grad student in Egyptology, after all. That stuff is kinda important to the big picture here."

So she was thinking about their real jobs as well. Sidestepping the topic, he shrugged. "It's no big deal. I guess I just didn't expect the whole American Christmas thing to be so intense."

The diversion worked. "Don't you let Pegasus get you jaded, Yugi. I want you to enjoy your first American Christmas." She was already a veteran; not only was her father American, she'd been living in New York the past two years. "But wait 'til you see New Year's. It's all one big excuse to party and it's over on January second. Not nearly as nice as _Oshogatsu_." She sighed, sounding a little wistful. "Too bad we won't be here so you can get the full initiation into the whole American holiday thing. Although I think it's probably pretty much the same in London."

"I don't care, as long as we're together."

"Always."

She kissed him on his temple and he closed his eyes, shivering as her lips moved slowly down his jaw. Every time she touched him he felt a little unreal, amazed that she was really here, really with him. Even after seven months, it was hard to shake the feeling that she wasn't really his, that with Atem gone and Yugi left with his memories and a good bit of his personality burned like an afterimage permanently into his soul, he only had Téa by default.

She stopped kissing him and rested her cheek against his. "You're thinking about him, aren't you?" She didn't have to clarify what "him" she meant.

He looked down, embarrassed that he could have been thinking about him while being kissed by her. Embarrassed that she'd known.

If she thought it odd, it didn't show. Answering a question he hadn't asked, she said, "I heard you call for him in your sleep."

"Oh."

"Any particular reason why?"

_Something's wrong._ He shook his head. "I don't know. I woke up reaching for the Millennium Puzzle. I guess I'll always miss him. I'll always wish I hadn't had to send him to the spirit world, that he could've stayed."

Her eyebrow arched and she gave him a crooked smile. "That would've made things _interesting_. I don't know if I'm the kind of girl who could do the whole threesome thing."

He gave her a startled look over his shoulder, blushing. "Uh…."

"I'm kidding, Yugi. I love you just the way you are." She kissed him on the cheek. "We should go back to bed, though. Knowing Joey and Tristan, they'll be wanting to open presents at the crack of dawn. Those two, I swear, they're the ones who need to be reminded they're not ten."

He rolled his eyes. "No joke. You know they actually did their Victory Dance when they remembered that everyone gets presents here? The whole month of December they've been—" He stopped short. _December_…

"What?"

His shoulders slumped as guilt filtered in, filling the hole in his gut. "Oh man, I just realized, Téa. It's December."

She pulled away enough to look at him, her nose wrinkling in wry amusement. "Okay, Pegasus must've been working you even harder than I thought, 'cause all the Christmas decorations and the Santa Clauses in every mall should've been a clue."

"No, I mean, it's _December_. That must be what's been bothering me. It's been three years since the Ceremonial Battle and I completely forgot until just now."

The amusement drained from Téa's face as it softened into a more somber expression. "Oh, wow. I forgot, too."

Yugi looked down at the floor, ashamed. "I can't believe I didn't remember."

"None of us did. Joey and Tristan haven't said anything, either."

"But he was the other _me_. _I'm_ the one who had to fight the Ceremonial Battle. _I'm_ the one who beat him and made him go. How could I go through the whole month of December and not even think about how three years ago, I had to send him away?"

She moved around in front of him and tipped his chin up until he met her gaze. "Fighting the Ceremonial Battle was the right thing to do; you and I both know that. He'd completed his mission. We found his memories, we found his name, we fought the darkness he couldn't beat by himself the first time around and we _won_. He needed us—all four of us—to beat Zorc and he needed _you_ to beat him in the Ceremonial Battle so he could finally 'put down his sword' and move on. He was an ancient spirit, Yugi. He didn't belong here with the living." Her face was resolute, but he wasn't sure whether she was trying to convince him or herself.

"I know, but it just doesn't seem possible he's been gone so long, does it? It feels like he only just left, but three years is longer than the amount of time he was _with_ me, and that feels like it was a whole lifetime. How could I forget him after only three years?"

"Oh, Yugi." She brushed aside his hair again. "Forgetting the date doesn't mean you forgot _him._ You'll never forget him. None of us will."

She leaned her forehead against his and they stood close, sharing a moment of silence for their lost friend. After a moment, she reached out to toy with the small pendant hanging around his neck where the Millennium Puzzle used to be. It was an oblong silver cartouche, the symbol ancient Egyptians used to enclose royal names, and it was engraved with an approximation of his name in Egyptian hieroglyphics—a double reed, a quail chick, a jar stand, and a flowering reed. _Y-U-G-I._ She'd given it to him for his birthday last June, just weeks after they'd finally admitted to each other that they were more than friends. Turning it over in her fingers, she pulled back again to look at him. "Maybe you should wear the other one, too. It might help you feel closer to him."

She was referring to another cartouche that he kept hanging over his dresser mirror. That had been a gift from her as well, only for Atem. She'd given it to him when they'd first arrived in Egypt just before the Ceremonial Battle. It had still been blank then—they hadn't discovered his name yet—but now it had five symbols etched into it that when transliterated directly into the Roman alphabet spelled out _A-T-E-M-U_, although the more accurate translation was _Atem_.

Yugi shook his head. "I can't wear it. It's not mine."

"Of course it's yours! Who else's would it be? Everything that was his is yours now."

The petulance crept back into his voice. "So you keep saying."

She dropped her hand, letting go of the necklace, and gave him a tired look, the one that said, _do we have to do this again_? Andhe felt bad, he really did. His insecurity shouldn't be her problem. Atem was his other self, not his rival. They completed each other, two halves of one whole, the strong and gentle sides of his personality. Like yin and yang, they were each other's opposites, yet each an integral part of the other, inextricably woven together to form one whole. It was the reason she'd given him the second cartouche, because Atem's name alone was only half of who they both were. But this was simultaneously reassuring and troubling to Yugi. If anyone could understand what Atem meant to him, it was Téa, yet the importance of Atem in her life also served to remind him that she didn't always see just Yugi when she looked at him. She saw _him_, too.

_When she kisses me, who does she see?_

It was a moot question—Atem was gone, leaving only Yugi, so there was no choice to be made. Except… Yugi couldn't help but wonder if that wasn't the real reason he hadn't stopped to remember. _You think if you can forget the dead and move on with the living, you won't have to choose._

This brought a fresh wave of guilt. He didn't want to forget. Did he?

No, he told himself, he did not want to forget. Out loud he said, "No matter how much the same we are, there's still the me that is me and the him that was him and I just… I feel stuck sometimes because I'm still not sure how we're supposed to fit now that he's gone. I feel like I'm supposed to move past the Ceremonial Battle somehow and just _go_, set out for someplace new, but I can't. I'm not ready." He sighed. "I still miss him so much."

She nodded. "I miss him, too." Then a look of determination came over her face. "Come here," she said, taking Yugi by the arm and leading him away from the window to his dresser. She removed Atem's cartouche from where it was hanging on the mirror and held it in her hand where both of them could look at it. "Remember when we found his name on that giant cartouche in his tomb? We couldn't even read the symbols. We had to pray them onto this one so he could read them."

Yugi could almost hear his other self's voice ringing out as he read the cartouche—_My name is Atem!_ Now after having spent two years living in Egypt earning his bachelors degree in Egyptology, Yugi could read hieroglyphics on his own. He touched the silver pendant, his fingers running lightly across the engraved figures. "Three years of searching for his memories and his real name and it all came down to five symbols—vulture, bread loaf, flowering reed, owl, quail chick."

"Or the Joey version—bird, rock, lamb chop, bird, and a bigger bird." Téa chuckled.

A ghost of a smile crossed Yugi's lips at the memory.

She touched his cheek. "See? You haven't forgotten. We just need to do something, just the four of us, to remember him. A kind of memorial service. Maybe get up early before everyone else."

He nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that. We were all separated the last two years. It will be nice to remember him together."

She handed the cartouche over to him. "He's always with you, Yugi."

He took it, closing his hand around it, feeling the cool silver against his palm. "I know." But he didn't put it around his neck. However much a part of him his other self was, he still had left behind a space Yugi couldn't quite fill.


	3. In Memoriam

**3. In Memoriam **

Christmas morning began in quiet solemnity at sunrise out on the balcony of the thirty-ninth floor of Illusions Tower. From where Yugi was sitting on the cold cement floor, his legs drawn up to his chest, arms wrapped around them for support and warmth, his chin resting on his knees, he couldn't see much of the city below, just the tops of the other skyscrapers around him. He could still see the top of the Transamerica Pyramid to his left, its white elongated triangle shape standing out against the pink sky. _Something's wrong,_ it seemed to whisper to him. _You're going to have to choose._ Yugi looked away from the needle-like building and focused on his friends instead.

Joey Wheeler stood at the rail, hands wrapped around a mug of steaming coffee. His head was lowered so that his mop of shaggy blond hair hid almond-shaped brown eyes that could be warm and inviting when he was smiling at his friends, or sharp and menacing at a perceived threat to them. When Téa had first dragged him out of Mai's apartment, his eyes had been more toward the menacing end as he scowled at being awoken at such an ungodly hour. Now he merely looked tired, his lanky not-quite-six-foot frame bundled into a fleece-lined jacket and hunched over the rail against the cold December wind.

Tristan Taylor, by contrast, looked completely alert, unaffected by the early hour. Just slightly taller than Joey, he looked every inch the military reservist that he was, with dark brown hair in a short buzz-cut, sharp hazel eyes, angular face, and almost painfully erect posture. He was leaning against the wall, his long legs crossed at the ankles.

Téa was lounging on the floor near Yugi. She was leaning back on her hands, legs stretched out in front of her, an afghan she'd pulled off her bed draped across them. Her head was tilted back and her eyes were closed, dark lashes quietly resting against cheeks reddened by the cold, and the dawn sky bathed her face in a pink-ish glow. Where Tristan exuded military precision, Téa always radiated a dancer's grace.

Predictably, it was Joey who broke the silence first, his nasal twang punctuating the still morning air. "The best memory I'll ever have of him is that duel we had after Battle City. I came _this close_ to beating him." He pinched his forefinger and thumb less than a centimeter apart. "_Me_. You can count on one hand the number of people that can say they got that close. That was one of the best days of my life."

Tristan snorted. "Dude, he totally let you get ahead 'cause he felt sorry for you."

"No way," Yugi said. "He was incapable of just letting someone else get an advantage. Joey just came really close to beating him, that's all."

"How is that _possible_?"

"Because I'm a kick-ass duelist, you nimrod!" Joey turned around to face them as he started ticking off his titles on his fingers. "Second place at Duelist Kingdom. Fourth place at Battle City. Japanese National Champion for two years straight. Third Place in Duel at Sea."

Tristan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you da man."

"Hey, I wanted to earn that Red-Eyes back."

"Whatever." Tristan shrugged. "Hey, remember the first time we 'saw' him?"

"'Saw' him like actually saw _him_?" Joey asked.

Téa didn't even bother opening her eyes. "Okay, only in our group would that sentence make any sense."

Joey slid down the rail to sit cross-legged on the ground and set his coffee mug down beside him. "Sure I remember when we first saw him. In Egypt, the Memory World."

"I could see him when we talked, especially in our soul rooms," Yugi said, "but he didn't look exactly like he did in the Memory World."

Joey looked at Yugi, eyebrow arched in curiosity. "What did he look like?"

"Like me. Only taller. And cooler."

"Well, _duh_."

Yugi scowled at Joey in response, but Tristan shook his head and uncrossed his legs to shift his weight from one to the other. "I'm not talking about the Memory World anyway. I'm talking about Duelist Kingdom."

Téa lifted her head and opened her eyes. "Oh, right! That Shadow Game with the evil Bakura! We were Duel Monsters and the other Yugi and the evil Bakura were giants playing the game."

"I thought I was dreaming." Tristan chuckled softly. "Hard to believe there once was a time when weird stuff still surprised us."

Téa laughed. "No kidding! I thought we were dressed up for a costume party. Remember how you guys had to be all manly and try and protect poor helpless little me?" She affected a lilting voice, batting her eyelashes.

"Helpless you my ass!" Joey rolled his eyes. "Just goes to show you we didn't know you very well yet, at least not me and Tristan. I got more bruises from the times you've poked or elbowed me than all the fights in my gang years combined."

"Yeah, right, I'm a real killer."

"You have sharp elbows. Me, I thought I was going insane with that big giant Yugi up there." Joey grinned at Yugi, a mischievous look in his eye. "Hey Yuge, you're right. He did look like you, only taller. And cooler."

"I believe that's how you explained it to Téa at the time, yes," Yugi said dryly. "The 'cool guy up there' and the 'puny guy down here.' Which I so appreciated, by the way. Way to make me look good in front of the girl I liked." He gave Téa a shy sideways smile.

Joey laughed, a sharp nasal barking sound that made the others cringe even though they were used to it. "Like the hissy fit you threw helped any!"

Yugi sat up straight and folded his arms in front of his chest. "I did not."

"You did too," Téa said, "but that's okay. You were cute anyway, totally swimming in those Dark Magician's robes."

Yugi groaned. "Yep, that's me, the 'cute' one. I would've liked to have been the cool one once in a while."

"You ever seen yourself in a duel, Yuge?" Joey asked. "And I don't mean him, I mean you. Trust me, you've got cool down. Which is a pretty amazing thing to pull off with _that_ hair."

Yugi narrowed his eyes. "Leave my hair out of it."

"I don't know, the hair kinda _makes_ the cool, don'tcha think?" Tristan cocked his head sideways. "The Official Hair of the King of Games. Hey, I bet you're like Samson. Cut your hair and it's all over, dude."

Joey laughed again and snapped his fingers as if he'd made a huge discovery. "That's it! Oh man, and we have a tournament in a few days! I am _so_ totally cutting your hair off while you sleep! Then if I can figure out a way to pitch Kaiba off of Big Ben or something, I'll take first place."

"If you touch so much as a strand of Yugi's hair, Joey Wheeler, I am coming after _you_ with a pair of scissors!" Téa put her hands on her hips and directed a threatening glower his way.

Joey threw his hands up in defense. "Whoa, read you loud and clear, Mother Hen. No touching the hair. Got it."

Tristan shook his head, laughing. "Some things never change."

Yugi looked at him, considering this. "And some things change a lot."

"He changed all of us, didn't he?" Joey's expression grew thoughtful as well.

Tristan nodded. "No doubt."

Yugi rested his chin on his knees again, pensive. "Is that a good thing? Most kids in high school don't have to worry about some psychotic ancient spirit stealing their souls. What do you think our lives would've been like if we could've been normal kids in high school?"

"Well, let's see." There was a sober edge to Joey's voice. "Way I figure, most of the guys I used to hang with before you guys are either in jail or dead, so I'm gonna go with I'm better off now than I woulda been without you and the Ph—Atem, I mean."

"That about sums it up for me," Tristan said.

Joey looked at him and frowned. "You weren't a gang banger."

"No, but I spent all my time pulling _you_ out of scrapes, so eventually someone would've nailed me. I'd rather go down fighting some gothic monster or megalomaniac than a stupid punk with a grudge and a switchblade."

Yugi turned to Téa. "What about you? Your life was fine before all this."

She snorted. "If by 'fine' you mean 'shallow,' then yeah, okay."

"You were never shallow, Téa," Yugi said earnestly, "and I bet you wouldn't have given up dancing if all that stuff hadn't happened to you."

Téa shook her head. "I _was_ shallow and I _haven't_ given up dancing. I just made it not the most important thing in my life. I already told you, Yugi, I cherish those years with you and with Atem. I wouldn't give up those years, knowing him and knowing you, not for all the lights on Broadway. He _did_ change us, and that is definitely a very good thing."

Yugi looked at her with a half smile, feeling wistful. "I know my life is better because of him. Before he came, I was scared of my own shadow. I could never have made friends with all you guys if he hadn't helped me be more confident. I _definitely_ wouldn't trade knowing him for anything. Fighting at his side… that always felt really _right_."

"And here we are, fighting the good fight all over again, like he never left. " Joey leaned his head back against the rail and looked up at the sky. "The four of us, the five of us, it all feels the same, don't it? We're still kicking butt and taking names. Only now we're getting _paid_ to do it, not to mention living the good life in a downtown penthouse, driving fancy cars, flying on fancy private jets. So how cool is _that_?"

Tristan reached up and scratched the back of his head. "Been awfully quiet on that front, though. We've been here since August, and not a peep out of Ramesses."

Téa moaned. "Of course, you realize now that you said that, all hell will break loose."

"It's why we're here." Joey shrugged, but the lack of concern in his voice sounded just a little forced. When he went on, however, he was his usual bragging self. "And Shadow Games or just regular dueling, we're doing it all the same as we always did when he was still with us."

Yugi tried not to think about the feeling that had awakened him in the middle of the night, the one that still made his stomach feel uneasy. "I still miss him."

"Yeah, buddy, me too." Joey picked up his coffee mug and raised it into the air. "Here's to you, Atem. Thanks for making us who we are. We'll never forget you, Pharaoh."

* * *

In her dreams, she was a dragon.

Not all of her dreams. Not even most of them. Mostly she had the usual dreams, where she was flying or falling, where there were monsters under the bed or she showed up in class and realized she was naked. But the dragon dreams were the ones that were the most vivid, the ones she could remember in crystalline detail after she woke up.

The first time she ever dreamed she was a dragon was when she was not quite seven. In her dream, she soared through the sky above an unfamiliar city, searching for something, something that was calling to her, pulling at her heart. Her wings stretched out as she glided, pristine and white, so white they almost looked blue, like the color of new snow under a cold winter sky. Like the color of her hair when she was awake and a human again. She circled the city, lower and lower, until she found herself hovering above a young boy about her age. She couldn't see his face, but he had brown hair and was lying on the pavement curled into a fetal position, completely alone. He radiated grief and loss, but curiously, he wasn't crying. She landed beside him, stretching her wings out protectively over him and though he never looked up at her, she knew he sensed her presence, and his muscles relaxed just slightly.

_I lost something._ Not spoken words, but she could understand him anyway.

_I will help you find it_. They were feelings more than words because she was a dragon. The boy, she knew, understood.

_No, it's gone forever. It can never come back._

She had no response for this. All she could do was shelter the boy with her wings. Eventually, enough tension drained from him that he uncurled himself and sat up straight, but still she could not see his face. She could, however, see that he, too, had been sheltering something. He showed it to her.

_She left this with me._

It was a dragon egg, she saw, gleaming ebony with streaks of pale gray. It was pretty, but utterly ordinary and she could feel the boy's ambivalence. The egg would not replace what he had lost, but it was something he could hold onto. It was something he could keep from losing.

_I won't lose it. I _can't_. I promised her._

_There's something else you won't lose. _ The dragon stretched her neck out to lay her head down beside him. _You won't lose me._


	4. Control

**4. Control**

Seto Kaiba liked to be in control. At twenty-two years of age and already the CEO and majority shareholder of a prominent international corporation, Kaiba was a man who firmly believed he was the master of his own destiny. He lived this out in every aspect of his life. While other men of his station would travel in chauffeured limousines, Kaiba preferred to drive for himself whenever possible. A licensed pilot, he preferred to fly for himself, too. But being master of one's own destiny also meant making smart choices. Piloting a thirteen-hour flight from Domino, Japan, to London himself when he could instead get work done if he let someone else do the flying was not a smart choice, so it was not the choice he made.

Still, as he worked on his laptop in the passenger compartment of Kaiba Corporation's company jet, he couldn't help but feel restless. It took some discipline to stay on task and not get up and go into the cockpit and demand the pilot turn over the controls. Fortunately, discipline was not a trait that Seto Kaiba was lacking.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for his younger brother.

"It's too bad we were in Domino instead of America before the tournament. We could've flown out with Yugi and everyone and not wasted so much fuel." There was a note of complaint in Mokuba Kaiba's voice.

Kaiba looked up from his computer. On its face, the statement was indicative of the conservation kick Mokuba had been on recently. While Kaiba didn't object to conservation in theory—saving resources meant saving money, after all—he would have chosen burning enough jet fuel to fly them around the world twenty times over before willingly submitting to spending over ten hours trapped in a plane with the Geek Squad. Mokuba knew this, which meant the real reason for his wistfulness had nothing to do with concerns over the environment.

"By 'and everyone,' I assume you mean Rebecca Hawkins."

Mokuba shrugged in a manner that was too deliberately casual. "Sure. She is my best friend."

Kaiba crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow. "Uh-huh."

"No, really, we're just friends now."

"Does _she_ know that?"

Mokuba groaned. "Yes, Seto. We talked about it just before you and I left for Japan, and we both decided to just be friends."

"If you say so." Kaiba nodded, then returned his attention to his laptop.

Mokuba was silent for a few more minutes, swiveling absently in his chair before he said, "I'm just saying, it would be nice to travel with some of our friends once in a while, don't you think?"

"If you're bored, Mokuba, you could always refine your deck and work on your strategy for the tournament."

Mokuba rolled his eyes with that air of being extremely put upon that only a fifteen-year-old could pull off. "I've already been through my deck like twelve times."

"And you think that's enough? You can never be too prepared. I would think after coming in sixteenth in the Duel at Sea tournament, you'd take the British Open more seriously."

Mokuba slouched and gave Kaiba a petulant pout. "Sixteenth out of a hundred and twenty-eight isn't so bad. Besides, Capsule Monsters is more my game than Duel Monsters."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes. "You're a Kaiba, Mokuba. If you don't want to put in the effort to be the best, why bother doing it at all?"

"Because it's _fun_. It's a game, remember?"

Kaiba leaned back in his seat, his elbows resting on its arms, and steepled his fingers under his chin as he regarded his brother. It struck him, as it often did, that the two of them couldn't be more dissimilar. Kaiba couldn't conceive of accepting being anything less than the best. Without that drive, he could never have wrested control of Kaiba Corp away from their stepfather even before graduating high school. Hell, he never would have won that chess game that had forced Gozaburo Kaiba to adopt him and Mokuba in the first place.

But where he was intense, Mokuba was laid back. Where he was serious, Mokuba was playful. Where he was cold, Mokuba was warm. They were the very definition of yin and yang down to their contrasting appearances. Mokuba had a round face and sleek, long black hair he usually wore pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck, loose strands artfully hanging around eyes that somehow managed to look open and warm despite their flint-gray color.

Kaiba, on the other hand, had an angular face with medium brown hair cut short in back but left long enough in front to shadow his sharp blue eyes in a way that enhanced his severe appearance. Although he wasn't given to reminiscing about his childhood, especially not anything that happened prior to the death of their real parents, he remembered his parents well enough to know that Mokuba favored their mother while Kaiba took after their father. Even their heights didn't match. At roughly five and a half feet with a few years of growth still left to him, Mokuba wasn't exactly short, but it was clear that he would never reach Kaiba's six feet.

Yin and yang.

"Mokuba, the purpose of any game is to win. If you don't intend to win, don't play."

His brother performed another brilliant teenage eye-roll, complete with his head thrown back for dramatic effect. "I _know_, Seto, I know. I'm a Kaiba and Kaibas are the best at everything they do. You've lectured me like a hundred million times. I get it."

"Then why don't you go through your deck again?"

"You're not going through your deck."

"I have the only three Blue-Eyes White Dragons in the world. What more do I need?"

"Yugi still beats you."

That touched a nerve, and he knew Mokuba knew it. Kaiba's jaw clenched. "I have work to do."

"You always have work to do."

And this, of course, was the real reason they were having this conversation in the first place. "I'm sorry I don't have as much free time for chatting with you as your little friends over at Industrial Illusions, Mokuba, but—"

"—I do have a company to run," Mokuba mimicked along with him in a fairly good imitation.

Kaiba narrowed his eyes in annoyance, but Mokuba was not the least bit cowed. "I know you have a company to run and you're very busy, but geez, when was the last time you just had fun? You need to have friends."

Kaiba sighed impatiently. "While I may tolerate your insistence on maintaining a friendship with Yugi Mutou and all his little disciples, I'm not interested in socializing with them myself. It's bad enough that I have to endure their company at tournaments and other Duel Monsters events."

"But I like being around them. Besides, we all made such a good team when we were shipwrecked."

Kaiba snapped his laptop shut with a sharp move and leaned forward, his eyes piercing through his brother's. "If you start parroting one of Yugi's teamwork sermons, I will make sure you never so much as step foot into the same room with any of them ever again. I don't wanna hear it, Mokuba!"

"But it's true! And you know we're going to have to work with them again, and I'm not just talking about Kaiba Corp's affiliation with Industrial Illusions, either. You know whoever this Ramesses is, he's not done with us."

Leaning back in his seat again, Kaiba returned to his contemplative pose, fingers steepled at his chin once more. "I'm well aware of the threat this Ramesses person poses. He threatened our company and he threatened you, and _nobody_ gets away with either of those things, let alone both."

Mokuba shook his head. "This has nothing to do with business or even with me, Seto. It's you he's after. Because of your connections to ancient Egypt. Because you're—"

"That's enough, Mokuba! I care about the future, not the past."

"The past affects our future, whether you want to accept your connection to the other Seto or not."

Kaiba groaned. "You _have_ been listening to Yugi too much. As for Ramesses, you know as well as I do that we are investigating his identity. We'll find him and bring him down. If it requires working with the Loser Patrol to do so, then so be it. But getting back to the point, that doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to want to be best pals with them. And locking myself on a plane for ten hours with Joey Wheeler is _not_ my idea of fun."

"I don't know what your deal with Joey is, but what about Yugi? I know he's your big rival and all, but you respect him for that. And Téa, I know you like her."

Kaiba frowned. "Just what are you implying?"

"Implying?" Mokuba asked, then his eyes widened and he threw up his hands. "Oh, for the love of… I'm not _implying_ anything. Yugi's my _friend_. I just mean you _respect_ her."

"She saved your life and I've repaid the favor. That's the end of it."

Mokuba shook his head. "Bullshit."

"Watch your mouth."

"Whatever." Mokuba rolled his eyes again. "She stands up to you, and you respect that. Don't deny it. But since you brought up the subject, it wouldn't kill you to date, either."

"I date," Kaiba said flatly.

"Oh, please. Hanging a random supermodel off your arm at the occasional formal business function or boffing some fangirl or another a couple times a year isn't _dating_."

"Mokuba!"

"What? I'm fifteen! You think I don't know what's going on?"

Kaiba rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers, trying to determine when exactly he'd lost control of this conversation. "My personal life is none of your business."

"You're my brother, Seto. Brothers are supposed to talk about this kind of stuff. I just…." He paused and Kaiba looked up. All of the teenage insolence had drained from Mokuba's face, and he suddenly looked like he was ten years old again, staring back at him with wide, worried eyes, his knees now drawn up against his chest. "I don't want you to be lonely, _Nii-sama_," he said quietly, his use of the Japanese honorific for _big brother_ further evidence that he was sincere. "You've been raising me since you were _ten_, 'cause God knows Gozaburo never gave a damn. You gave up your whole childhood to take care of me, to make sure I had everything, but now you're almost finished. In two and a half years, I'll graduate high school. Less if your tutors keep pushing me like they are. I'll go to college, or take over whatever part of Kaiba Corp you decide to hand off to me, or who knows what, but I'm gonna have a life that isn't just you and Kaiba Corp and I really… I worry about you, _Nii-sama_. You gave me a happy life, mostly, but I don't know if you know how to give yourself one."

It was a rare event when Seto Kaiba was surprised. Rarer still for him to find himself speechless, and certainly never for something that didn't involve magic, Millennium Items, and ancient Egypt. But Mokuba surprised him and he wasn't sure how to respond. "Mokuba… There's nothing wrong with my life."

"You used to smile," Mokuba said sadly. "And I don't mean just when you won some victory. I wish… I don't know." He shrugged, looking at his knees.

"There's nothing wrong with my life," Kaiba repeated. Sniffing, he pushed his laptop aside. "Since you're clearly not going to let me get any work done, we might as well make use of the time. Get out your deck and we'll duel."

Mokuba smirked. "So you can drill me into doing better than sixteenth place?"

"Wouldn't hurt. It might even be… fun."


	5. Issues

**5. Issues**

Joey stretched as he came out of the lavatory and looked around the main cabin of the plane, amazed as always by the sheer luxury that surrounded him. _Joey Wheeler, living in a penthouse and riding in fancy private jets to big time Duel Monsters tournaments. Who'da thought?_ _God, I love this job._

Of the cabin's twelve seats, grouped in fours around three tables, nine of them were currently occupied and in reclined positions for sleeping; Joey was the only one awake and out of his seat. In the rearmost group nearest the bathroom, Duke Devlin was lying with his arm flung lazily across the next seat, which contained his latest conquest, some brunette freshman from San Francisco State University. Cookie or Candy or something like that. Joey smiled in satisfaction at the pair; he was a big supporter of Duke's love life so long as it involved Anyone Who Is Not My Sister.

As his gaze moved to the pair of seats across the table, however, Joey's smile faded. Tristan was sprawled out on his back across from Duke, the outside arm of the seat keeping him from spilling off into the aisle. Beside him, Joey's sister Serenity slumped against Tristan, her forehead resting lightly on his shoulder, long auburn hair curtaining her face from view.

Joey growled in the back of his throat. Even on a private jet among his so-called friends he had to worry about his eighteen-year-old sister, who with her fresh face and bright hazel eyes rimmed with thick lashes always seemed to have drooling idiots chasing after her wherever she went. On impulse, Joey reached over and flipped up the arm of Tristan's seat, dumping him unceremoniously onto the floor of the cabin.

"Wha…?" Tristan grunted in confusion. Serenity's head lolled forward into the seat Tristan had just vacated, and then she rolled over on her other side toward the window without waking. Tristan looked up to see Joey standing above him. Instantly alert, his eyes narrowed to angry slits. "What the hell is the _matter _with you?"

"Shh! You'll wake everyone." Try as he might, Joey couldn't quite wipe the smug smile off his face. "The arm of your seat caught on my jacket. Sorry."

Tristan jumped up from the floor. "You are so full of shit. Grow up already! Your sister and I are _friends_. Not that it's any business of yours."

"Yeah, like you don't want more."

Tristan stuck his face inches from Joey's. "I did, she didn't, so we're _just friends_. Get over it. I did."

"Then what's she doing sleeping on your shoulder?"

Tristan's cheek twitched, and he clenched and unclenched his fists before letting out an angry puff of air. "Dude, you have serious issues, you know that?" Turning with a huff, he got back into his seat and lay down on his side, his back to Joey.

Joey glared at the back of his treacherous friend for a moment before turning to make his way to the center group of seats. Yugi and Téa were curled on their sides facing each other in the seats back-to-back with Tristan and Serenity, Téa's head against Yugi's shoulder and his cheek resting on her hair. A single blanket was pulled up across both of them. In the seat across the table from Téa, Joey could see only the outline of someone beneath another blanket, a few tufts of blond hair the only thing visible. His irritation faded as he settled into the seat beside the sleeping form and leaned over, pulling back the blanket enough to see the face of the woman beneath. Long golden hair fanned out around a white face with long, dark lashes resting on high cheekbones, and full lips curved into a slight pout. Joey shook his head, another _who'da thought_ moment washing over him as he gently traced a line with his finger down her shoulder. _How the hell did a guy like me end up with a girl like Mai Valentine?_

"Mmmm, that's nice."

He lay down with his face close to hers. "Sorry, Mai, I didn't mean to wake you. "

"Who said I'm awake?" Without opening her eyes, she pulled her blanket back up around her chin and snuggled further into the seat. "What time is it?"

"In San Francisco or London?"

"Um, yes."

"Not a clue."

"What good are you then?"

With a salacious grin he propped himself up on his elbow and leaned over to whisper into her ear a few things he was good for.

She opened her eyes, violet and cat-like, and rolled onto her back to look up at him with a smirk. "Talk is cheap, Wheeler."

"Yeah, well there ain't enough privacy for a demonstration."

She gave him an appraising look. "What are you doing up anyway? I mean besides busting Tristan's chops for no good reason."

Joey's smile instantly transformed back into a scowl, and he flopped back into his own seat. "That's none of your business, Mai."

"Funny, I was going to say the same thing to you."

"Drop it, Mai."

Now it was her turn to prop herself up on her elbow and look down at him, but he averted his eyes.

"Joey…."

"I know what you're gonna say, so don't waste your breath. 'She's almost nineteen. She can take care of herself.' Blah blah blah. I've head all the lectures, but it doesn't matter because she'll always be my kid sister and I'm always gonna look out for her."

"Nobody's telling you to stop loving her or stop looking out for her. It's just… you're not helping."

He turned his eyes back toward her. "Not helping what?"

She sighed. "Joey," she said, lowering her voice so he had to strain to hear her, "did it ever occur to you that a girl who at seven years old had to be removed from the home where her father and brother lived because her father was a drunk and a lout and blamed her and her medical problems for everything that was wrong in his sorry life, that a girl with that kind of background just maybe might have… _issues_… with men?"

Joey's eyes narrowed threateningly. "What do you mean, '_issues'_?"

"Oh relax," she said, her voice weary. "I'm not insulting her. You know she's one of my favorite people on the planet. But take it from someone who knows; nothing screws with a girl's attitude about men more than having daddy issues."

"Serenity's nothing like you."

Joey regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth as Mai gave him a dark look. "I'm gonna let the implication that there's something wrong with being like me slide, Wheeler, because I know you're slightly obsessive when it comes to your sister."

"I didn't mean—"

"Yes you did. And no, she's not like me. Not exactly. I kept men away by having lots of cheap and superficial relationships. She keeps them away by, well, hiding behind you."

Joey frowned. "She doesn't hide behind me. She's always bugging me to leave her alone."

"I know that's what she _says_, but she doesn't do anything to counter the impression that she's untouchable, either."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It is, Joey! Sure, there are a lot of jerks out there, but there are a lot of good guys, too. Tristan, for example. I've been watching her the past few months, and she does a pretty good job of using your psychotically overprotective big brother routine as a screen to keep everyone at arm's length. That or stuff like playing Duke and Tristan off each other until Duke got bored and Tristan called her on it. And I should point out that they both stuck around and are her _friends_, showing her she's got more value than just a pretty face. Like you did for me." She gave him a significant look. "You should be thanking Tristan for proving not all men are like your father instead of picking fights with him."

He looked away from her, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

She sighed. "There's nothing wrong with being single, Joey, with concentrating on school or career or just having friends, but not if it's out of fear. Not… not the way I was, okay? I… you… you're the best thing that ever happened to me, do you realize that? Don't you want that for Serenity?"

He met her gaze again. He knew that was hard for her to say. She could be playful and coy and sultry. She could seduce him with a look, and often did. But talking about real feelings was a struggle for her. In the seven months they'd been together, she'd never once said the words _I love you_ out loud. She'd written them in a note, one he carried in his wallet. She told him in a million other ways that never left him doubting. But real words about real feelings came only with great effort, so he was deeply touched whenever they did come. "Everyone should be so lucky," he said softly, reaching up and cupping her cheek with his hand.

"Then back off, okay?" She reached for a pendant that was hanging from a fine gold chain around Joey's neck. A Christmas gift from Pegasus, it was a dragon, about the size of a Monopoly game piece, intricately carved out of ebony and inset with two tiny ruby baguettes for eyes. Joey's signature Duel Monster, Red-Eyes Black Dragon. They'd each received similar necklaces, tiny representations of their individual guardian monsters. Mai's was a Harpie Lady made from jade and amethyst.

She held Joey's Red-Eyes pendant up so he could see it. "You can't always be the big bad dragon, Joey. She needs to sink or swim on her own."

He dropped his hand and blew his hair out of his face with a huff of frustration. "Nothing doing. She's my sister, Mai, and for six years we weren't allowed to see each other or even speak to each other. She had to make videotapes of herself and sneak them in the mail to me just 'cause she was afraid I'd forget her. Now that we're together again, I'm gonna look out for her. End of story."

Mai grunted in exasperation and dropped the pendant as she fell back into her seat. "You're impossible."

"That's why you love me."

"Bite me." 

"I already told you, not enough privacy here."

"You're a pig." She turned her head sideways and rolled her eyes at him. "And by the way, you never did answer my question about why you're up. 'Cause if you got up just to check up on your sister, I'm really gonna have to hurt you."

Joey felt the sarcasm drain away. "I dunno. Couldn't sleep."

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Since when do you _ever_ have trouble sleeping?"

"I'm antsy about the tournament, I guess. Understandable, don'tcha think, considering how the last major tournament turned out?"

"It wasn't all bad. It brought the two of us together."

He smiled at her. "Yeah, it only took three days and the ship sinking to get you to talk to me first."

"You forgot the part where I helped save your life."

"See, that was all just part of my ingenious plan to get you to talk to me again." He gave her a conspiratorial wink.

She snorted. "Oh yeah, brilliant plan, Sherlock, especially the part where you almost drowned."

"Hey, it worked."

"Yeah, I guess it did." She reached for her own pendant and took it between two fingers, a pensive look on her face as immaculately lacquered nails clicking on the tiny Harpie Lady figurine. "So I take it you think Ramesses is finally gonna make his move?"

He shrugged the one shoulder he wasn't lying on. "I dunno. Seems like a good possibility anyway. Yugi is jumpy about it and Pegasus is, too—hence the jewelry. And it has been seven months. More than enough for him to regroup and find a new lackey to replace Evan." He wrinkled his nose on the name.

"It is why we were hired."

"I know that. I said the same thing when Tristan brought it up Christmas morning. And to tell you the truth, I'm actually… I dunno, all of this waiting for the other shoe to drop is making me jumpy, that's all. I wish Rafael woulda known something more, or Pegasus or Kaiba's goons woulda found out who the guy really is or _something_. It's like dueling against a Shadow Ghoul. It hides in the dark so you can't do nothing but sit and wait for it to attack. I don't like those kinda games. I'd rather just get on with it already."

"Be careful what you wish for." Mai shifted under her blanket. "I have a feeling when he does make his move, it's gonna be some sideways attack that totally blindsides us."

"Yeah." Joey nodded soberly. "That's what I'm afraid of."


	6. Just a Card Game

**6. Just a Card Game**

Téa poked at the food on her tray. It wasn't that it wasn't good; all preconceptions about airline food went out the window when you were on a private luxury jet. It wasn't even the fact that her body was telling her it was three in the morning, not eleven. Her lack of appetite could be attributed solely to nerves.

She wasn't the only one, either. On the surface, everyone seemed fine, even chipper. Behind her, Tristan and Serenity were making fun of Duke, who was trying to explain the intricacies of Duel Monsters and his own game creation, Dungeon Dice Monsters, to his date. Téa thought the girl did an admirable job of feigning interest, but clearly she was mostly in it for an almost-free trip to London on a private jet with a hot guy, and Duke certainly was that—a couple inches shorter than Joey, with long black hair stylishly tousled, piercing green eyes usually rimmed with black eyeliner, and all the swagger of Seto Kaiba without the frost.

In the front of the cabin, Téa could hear Rebecca Hawkins singing tunelessly along with her iPod while she clicked away at the keys of her laptop. Every so often her grandfather would nudge her with a reminder that she was being rather loud, but eventually she would forget and start singing again.

Across from Téa, Mai and Joey were engaged in typical pre-tournament posturing, calling each other "Wheeler" and "Valentine" and arguing over which of them would beat the other and whether either of them would finally manage to take down Yugi or Kaiba. Joey renewed his threat to shave Yugi's head while he slept, until Téa reminded him how she would pay him back. Yugi buried his face in his palm, pretending to ignore all three of them.

But banter notwithstanding, there was an undercurrent of tension on the plane. Yugi had been jumpy ever since waking up in the middle of the night Christmas Eve. He'd tried to write it off as guilt over forgetting the anniversary of Atem's… _death_ was the word, but Téa couldn't quite reconcile it with the visual image she had of him walking into the light where his friends and family from ancient Egypt waited for him. But she knew there was more to what was bothering Yugi than that.

Of course, the fact that this was the first major tournament since Ramesses had derailed Duel at Sea seven months ago was not lost on any of them. It was a likely time for him to make another move, but here they were less than two hours away from landing, and they still hadn't discussed it. Like her, they were all procrastinating, pretending for these last few moments that they were just gamers, that Duel Monsters was just a card game, and that nothing could possibly go wrong.

"We totally need to hit the stores when we land, Téa," she heard Mai say, and she looked up, grateful for the distraction. "I need a new dress for the New Year's Eve party and we can't do London without hitting Harrods and Marks and Spenser."

Joey groaned. "You gotta be kidding me! You've done nothing _but_ shop the entire month of December. Christmas is over!"

"Oh, but now it's time for the after-Christmas sales. Best shopping time of the year."

"You said that after Thanksgiving!"

"Well, that's the _other_ best shopping time of the year. That, Joey, is the point of the holiday season."

"_Shopping_?" Joey slapped his forehead. "I swear, you Americans have the most screwed up concept of holidays I've ever seen."

"You're half American, don't forget, and don't even get me started on the Japanese concept of holidays. Your New Year's is like Christmas and your Christmas is like Valentine's Day. Not that I don't approve of Christmas being like Valentine's Day."

"In your universe, every day is _Valentine's_ Day."

She gave him a bright smile. "And don't you forget it."

Yugi leaned over to Téa, shaking his head. "I doubt those two can go five minutes without fighting."

"I think it's their idea of foreplay."

She laughed as Yugi, predictably, cringed. "Too much information!"

"I miss a good joke?"

Téa and Yugi looked up to see Rebecca standing in the aisle beside them, round blue eyes peering at them over half-moon glasses perched on the end of her nose. This gave her an air of sort of mature wisdom that contrasted wildly with her blond hair pulled back into pigtails, round face, and diminutive height, all of which made her appear deceptively younger than her fourteen years. It was an affectation she used when dueling to make her opponents write her off as a stupid kid when in reality she was a child genius. By the time she was eight, she had already won her first Duel Monsters national tournament. She'd graduated high school by the time she was ten, and had earned her bachelor's degree in information technology when she was thirteen.

"It was nothing," Yugi said quickly, not about to repeat Téa's comment about foreplay to the girl he thought of as a sort of little sister.

"Too bad. I'm bored." Rebecca flopped down across their seats, wedging herself between Yugi and Téa, who suddenly wished she'd left the arm between her seat and Yugi's down.

"_Excuse_ me!" Téa grimaced while Yugi merely grunted at the sudden weight on his lap.

Rebecca was either oblivious to Téa's irritation or more likely, ignoring it. "Are we almost there?"

"Another couple hours." Yugi slid over toward the aisle to make room for her.

Joey leaned forward, a wicked glint in his eye. "Can't wait to see _Mokuba_, huh Short Stuff?"

Rebecca gave him a look of supreme exasperation over her glasses as if he were a particularly dull child who needed to have the simplest concepts repeatedly explained to him. "We're just friends."

Yugi rolled his eyes. "Yeah, _this_ week."

"Oh, don't be jealous, Yugi, you know you'll always be my first love." She threaded her arm through his and gave it a squeeze.

"Argh, Rebecca, give it a rest, will you?" He pulled his arm free, his cheeks reddening.

Téa gnashed her teeth. She liked Rebecca, she really did, but sometimes the girl just got on her last nerve.

Behind Joey and Mai, Rebecca's grandfather rose from his seat and came over to stand in the aisle beside them. A tall, gray-haired and mustached man with a weathered face and warm blue-green eyes, he looked down at his granddaughter with an attempt at a hard glare. "Rebecca, leave Yugi alone." The glare utterly failed, however, and there was a fondness to his cultured accent that undercut the scolding. Professor Arthur Hawkins clearly adored his granddaughter.

Rebecca grabbed Yugi's arm again and huddled against him. "Oh c'mon, Gramps, Yugi doesn't mind, do you _Onii-chan?_"

Yugi, guilted into submission by her use of the Japanese endearment for _big brother,_ looked resigned to his fate, but Téa seethed and started plotting ways to throw Rebecca off the plane. Professor Hawkins, meanwhile, reached over Yugi's head to rustle his granddaughter's hair. "I'm glad you have such good friends." His smile then faded slightly, an almost wistful look crossing his face before he turned and headed toward the lavatory at the back of the cabin.

Rebecca strained over the seat back, pushing down on Yugi's and Téa's shoulders to do so, and watched him go. When he'd entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him, Rebecca slumped back down in her seat and leaned in close to Yugi, lowering her voice. "Okay, is it just me, or has Grandpa been acting weird lately?'

Yugi frowned. "Weird how?"

"I don't know, just _weird_. You know he doesn't get along with my other grandparents, right? But last summer right when we moved back to California from Cairo, all of a sudden he decides I need to go stay with them in Boston for a month. A month!" Her nose wrinkled in distaste. "And now it's only half a year later, and we have to go back and stay with them _again_ for some stupid family reunion as soon as the tournament's over. I don't even get to fly back with you guys."

"That's not weird. They're your family, Rebecca. I know you don't like them much—"

"They treat me like a kid!"

Téa crossed her arms. "You _are_ a kid."

"Yeah, but they make this huge deal out of me finishing school early like it was some sort of cruel thing Grandpa did to me. They just can't wrap their minds around how miserable I'd be if I were stuck in middle school with kids my age."

"But still, they're your mom's parents, and your grandfather's right for wanting you to stay in contact with them, don't you think?" Yugi asked.

"Okay, but that's not all. The last couple months, he got on this huge kick about my birthday and me turning fourteen, like it was this big important milestone. But after my birthday, he got all sad, like I was gonna leave him tomorrow or something."

Yugi shrugged. "I dunno, Rebecca, he's been raising you since you were a baby. It's probably hard letting you grow up. And even though you're only fourteen, you live with us at the penthouse half the time. You're a college graduate and pretty independent. That's gotta be a little sad for him sometimes. My grandpa's the same way. You should've seen him when we left Domino to move to San Francisco."

Joey snorted then chuckled. "No kidding! I didn't think he was gonna let go of you, Yuge."

"You either. He thinks of you like his other grandson after you lived there and helped in the game shop for two years."

"I'm surprised he's not coming," Téa said. "He could write the whole thing off as a business trip if he were an exhibitor."

Yugi shook his head. "Nah, he took too much time away from the shop last spring to come to San Francisco when we were shipwrecked, and then to go to New York with you and me afterwards. He keeps complaining that without either me or Joey, there's no one he can really trust to run things if he goes away."

Joey turned to Mai. "You shoulda seen him at the airport the day we left, crying over us like we was going off to war or something. Then Yugi came up with this brilliant idea to distract him. He told him that once we got out here, the two of us were gonna open another game store together, a Kame Games America so Gramps could go international. And he totally bought it!"

Yugi looked down, his cheeks turning red again. "Uh, actually, Joey, I kinda don't totally hate the idea. If I end up living in San Francisco after I graduate, I'd really like to have a game store, but I couldn't do it alone. I'd need a… I mean, I'd need to do it with someone who could be around when I wasn't. Someone who really knows games and everything, and if you ended up staying there, too, I thought maybe… I dunno..."

Joey looked astonished. "You're not serious, Yuge! You and me? Partners?"

Yugi flinched a little, but nodded. "If you don't think it's stupid."

"Are you kidding me? Yuge… that would be awesome!"

Rebecca crossed her arms. "Uh, this is really sweet and all, but can we get back to _me_ now? I—" She cut herself off suddenly when they heard the lavatory door click open behind them. With a groan, she slouched down between Yugi and Téa.

"I'm sure everything's fine," Yugi said quickly, patting her on the leg.

Professor Hawkins stopped beside them again on his way back to the front of the cabin. "Rebecca, there are enough seats on the plane for you not to have to crowd Yugi and Téa. Come back to your own seat."

"Grandpa!" Rebecca stuck out her lower lip in an exaggerated pout, but with the help of a little shove from Téa, she squirmed out from between them and slumped after the professor back to their seats in the front.

"So Yuge," Joey said slowly when Rebecca was off Yugi's lap. "It's getting kinda close to landing. We got stuff to discuss, don'tcha think?" He lowered his voice. "Although Duke should probably give his girlfriend something to do first."

Mai shook her head. "You don't really think Miss Kappa Theta Gamma is a spy for Ramesses, do you?"

"I'm sure she isn't, but there's no reason to involve her," Yugi said. "Duke knows that."

Téa nodded in agreement. "Besides, none of us thought Evan Haines was one of the bad guys, either."

"I did." Joey flashed Mai a sort of vindicated grin.

Mai folded her arms and arched an eyebrow at him. "No, you just didn't like him because he hit on me."

"So? I was right, wasn't I?"

Yugi quickly steered them back on topic. "You're right that we need to talk strategy anyway. We can't keep putting it off." He swallowed, and Téa saw that same look of unease she'd been seeing since Christmas Eve, but it was gone by the time he got up and stepped into the aisle. He looked at the group of seats behind Téa and gave a curt nod. "Duke."

Duke rose from his seat, flipping his hair over his shoulder in a well-practiced move. "Hey Cady, wanna check out the view from the cockpit? I'm sure the pilots would love to show you around."

Joey snapped his fingers. "Cady! I was close!"

Duke led Cady to the cockpit, then returned a moment later, closing the door to the cabin behind him. He leaned against the bulkhead, one booted foot propped up on the arm of his seat, his right hand in his pocket and his left absently toying with the six-sided die that always dangled from his left ear. He looked at Yugi expectantly.

Yugi's back straightened and he crossed his arms in a way that gave him an almost regal air, his eyes narrowing intently. It was an unconscious habit from when Atem was still with him, a pose he assumed whenever he accessed that part of him that had come from his other self. He was a reluctant leader, Téa knew, still plagued with insecurity about his skills and his ability to be the imposing and brash champion that he equated with the Pharaoh. But when it was time to strategize, or to duel, or to fight, it was as if Atem's spirit still resided in him and could take over at a moment's notice.

"It's been seven months since Ramesses sunk our ship and tried to use us and the Orichalcos stones to re-open the Shadow Realm." He was using that deep tone Téa thought of as his "game voice." "But we all know he's eventually going to try again, so we need to be on guard. Tristan, what do we know about tournament security?"

"It's as tight as it's gonna get, but that's not saying much. Earls Court has security at all entrances and badges are required for anyone to get into any of the dueling arenas. There are competitor, spectator, exhibitor, press, and volunteer badges, so it isn't all that hard to get a badge. And they screen for weapons, but an Orichalcos stone isn't exactly what they had in mind, so it wouldn't be hard for anyone to walk into the place with a duffel bag full of the stuff. There's just no way to guard against it."

"What do we know about who's entered?" Yugi turned toward the front of the plane.

Rebecca looked grim. "Not much. It's an open tournament rather than an invitational, so any level five or above duelist can enter so long as they register before seven o'clock tonight. After that, I can hack into the system pretty easily and find out who's competing and run some cross-checks against what little information Rafael was able to give us about people involved with Paradias and the original Orichalcos scheme. To be honest, though, I don't expect any results. If Ramesses does decide to use this tournament for some Shadow Games, I doubt he'll do it himself. He'll get someone like Evan Haines completely unrelated to Paradias."

Yugi nodded in agreement. "I think you're right, but it's still a good idea. If registration closes at 7:00, at 7:01 I want you in the system getting a finalized list of names and crosschecking it against Rafael's list and any list Pegasus or Kaiba might have as well." He smirked at her. "I trust you can get Mokuba's help in getting information from Kaiba?"

She didn't take the bait. "Of course."

"Duke, what about exhibitors?"

"It's the usual mix of convention exhibitors. Some are mom-and-pop card shops like your grandpa's, some are bigger chains like my father's and, of course, there're the big corporate sponsors like Kaiba Corp and Industrial Illusions. We're previewing four new games, plus exhibiting the regular fare at the I-I booth, including Dungeon Dice Monsters. Exhibitors had to register three months in advance, so we already have all the names there and have cross-checked them against every list we have, but again, it's no surprise that nothing came up."

"Still, you need to do some checking around the exhibitor's floor."

"I was gonna take a look as soon as we check into the hotel."

"Good. Serenity." Yugi's attention moved to the pretty redhead beside Tristan. "Since Ramesses can use almost anyone to try and get us into a Shadow Game, and information from the usual channels isn't very helpful, your contribution is going to be key. We all get weird when the Orichalcos is having some sort of influence on us, but you're the only one who really seems to sense when the Shadow Realm is involved. As soon as Rebecca has a list of contestants, I want you to make it a point to meet every single one of them. If any of them are being controlled or have lost in some sort of Shadow Game, I think you'll know. Can you do that?"

"No problem. Pegasus arranged for me to be one of the tournament medics rather than just Industrial Illusion's MT, so I have an excuse to meet with every contestant before they duel. You know, to make sure they're up to using the Duel Disk holographic system. Every upgrade Kaiba puts into his Duel Disks seems to make them more rigorous. It's a good excuse for everyone to be required to check with a medic before their first duel."

"Good." Yugi nodded. "Okay, then, I think that's the best we can do for now. Let's just hope we're being paranoid and that this ends up being just a card game tournament."

He met Téa's eyes again and suddenly the Pharaoh-ness was gone, leaving only Yugi, a look of concern in his wide, solemn eyes.

For them, it was never just a card game.


	7. The Queen's Head

**7. The Queen's Head**

As if they had all come to mutual agreement, nearly every duelist competing in the British Open ended up at the Queen's Head Pub a block away from the convention center at some point the evening before the tournament began. By the time Yugi and his friends met there at six o'clock for dinner and drinks, the dark, musty tavern was crowded with the usual suspects and also many unfamiliar faces. The atmosphere was a mixture of smoke, stale beer, and swagger, as duelists greeted old friends, showed off new cards, or bragged about recently acquired titles. 

As they made their way across the worn hardwood floor in search of some tables, Yugi found himself greeted warmly, jostled, or sized up by fellow competitors, many of whom were old friends—or adversaries—from previous tournaments. There were also faces he didn't recognize, but they all seemed to recognize him, and his instinct was to ignore the stares—some curious, some with hushed respect and others with open hostility or challenge—that followed him as they elbowed through the crowd. But it was very specifically his job to be noticed and to encourage people to want to emulate him and be exited about the game, so he wrapped himself in his other self's bravado the way he might a coat that was warm and comfortable and familiar, but just a bit too oversized to be a perfect fit, meeting each gaze unflinching, returning hostile ones with defiance and curious or reverent ones with warmth.

"Hey, you're Yugi Mutou, right?" asked a young teenager of maybe thirteen or fourteen, who was surrounded by a cluster of boys about his age, all wearing spectator badges. "Would you mind if I asked for an autograph?"

"No problem." He forced the Pharaoh's smile onto his face and took the proffered pen and Duel Monsters card. Dark Magician, he noted.

Joey leaned down over Yugi. "I'd be happy to sign, too, kid. Joey Wheeler," he added at the blank look he received in response.

"Oh, right, thanks." The kid shrugged and Yugi breathed a small sigh of relief that he at least recognized Joey's name.

Several of the boys in the group mobbed Rebecca, who was wearing a stylish sweater and had her hair loose over her shoulders—a much more sophisticated look than she'd had on the plane. Mokuba, who had joined them after they'd run into him and his brother at the hotel, had been drooping at Rebecca's side, looking exhausted, but he perked up enough to give her admirers an icy stare. Mai came to his rescue, drawing the crowd to her next with a smile, a wink, and a flip of her hair until Yugi thought one poor boy's knees were going to give out on him. Despite their eagerness, the boys looked deathly afraid of her, enough so that Joey didn't seem to feel the need to intimidate them further, and he passed on their cards and promotional posters to Mai without complaint. After each signature, she would press her lips to the card, leaving a lipstick kiss behind while the teens sniggered into their hands. Yugi saw Téa roll her eyes and shake her head in exasperation over what Mai called her Standard Playboy Bunny routine.

As Yugi finished signing his name to the last card and was handing it back to its owner, one of the boys pressed in toward him. "Hey Yugi, give us a look at the Egyptian god cards, won't you?"

Téa's eyes flicked down to the floor, but Yugi was used to the request by now, and he answered automatically with his stock reply. "Sorry, I don't keep them in my deck. They're banned from most tournaments anyway."

"Aw, c'mon mate! I have the entire Battle City series on tape, but I was hoping to see the god cards in person."

"Sorry." Yugi shrugged in the offhand way his other self would to end a discussion.

Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Sky Dragon, and Winged Dragon of Ra were among Yugi's most treasured possessions. Along with the golden box the Millennium Puzzle had come in and the silver cartouche with _Atemu_ engraved on it, the three Egyptian god cards were his only real mementos of his time with Atem. The cartouche hung on his dresser mirror in his apartment and the Puzzle box he kept with him wherever he traveled, but the god cards were locked in a safe deposit box in Domino, and he refused to remove them.

It was a subject he and Pegasus had argued over heatedly when he'd first started working for Industrial Illusions. Pegasus had wanted him to keep them in his deck and to use them in exhibitions and show them at events—anywhere they weren't banned from play for being too powerful and giving their holder an unfair advantage. People wanted to see them, he'd argued, and he had been the one who'd created them. But Yugi was the one in possession of them and he'd flatly refused.

"I own the images," Pegasus had said. "I can make a new set for you, Yugi-boy. Legally there is nothing stopping me. I can even mass-produce them if I so choose."

"Yes, you can, but you won't. There's only one person who can properly wield those cards, and you know it. They don't belong in anyone's deck. Not mine, not anyone's."

"You keep Dark Magician in your deck."

He'd had a point. Yugi's deck was always some variation or another on the spellcaster deck he'd originally put together with his other self rather than the one he'd compiled completely on his own for the Ceremonial Battle. Like when Atem was still with him, his deck always had Dark Magician as its focal point. His reluctance to show off the god cards wasn't because he didn't want to use _any_ of the cards that he primarily associated with his other self. On the contrary, he liked dueling with Atem's favorite cards as a way to stay connected to him. But these cards… he'd never felt he'd rightfully inherited them the way he had Dark Magician or Black Luster Soldier or any of the others they had played together. The god cards belonged to the _Pharaoh_ and the Pharaoh alone.

To Pegasus, he'd said, "Do you really want the god cards out there with some maniac on the loose trying to open the Shadow Realm?"

In the end, that was the argument that Pegasus had grudgingly conceded, and the god cards stayed locked away.

"All right, move along now."

Yugi looked over to see Joey growling at one of the boys who had started flirting with Serenity. Petite and shapely, she always seemed to have men flocking to her. A good seven years younger than Mai, and without her overt sexuality, Serenity was apparently less intimidating, which meant that Joey had decided the boys were a threat after all. Mai elbowed him in the side, but it didn't do any good. He continued to give them menacing stares until the boys finally moved on.

"Okay, I think I've found us a place to sit." There was a devious edge to Mai's voice. She disappeared into the crowd, then a moment later called them over to the back of the pub where she had managed to procure a couple of tables.

Joey cringed. "Do I wanna know how you got these?"

"Let's just say that there were a bunch of blowhards who were just begging to be relieved of them." She flashed a wide smile and Joey shook his head as he and Tristan pushed the two small round tables together as close as they could, then crowded eight short stools around them—Yugi, Téa, Joey, and Mai taking seats around one table and Tristan, Serenity, Rebecca, and Mokuba at the other. Duke was still busy setting up the Dungeon Dice Monsters booth in the exhibit hall and would come by later with Cady, and Professor Hawkins had begged off, ostensibly to work on lesson plans for the spring semester, but more likely to allow Rebecca some breathing room.

A few minutes after they settled in, a server found them and they ordered beer or ale or cider and black in tall pint glasses, Cokes for Rebecca and Mokuba, and fish and chips for everyone.

"So how're things in Domino?" Joey asked Mokuba, munching on peanuts as they waited for their food.

"Same old, same old." Mokuba yawned and slumped in his seat beside Rebecca. "I saw your grandpa a couple of times, Yugi. He said he wished he could come for the Open, but kept going on and _on_ about how hard it was to find anyone he could trust with the shop."

Yugi glanced at Joey, who grinned in response. Mokuba, meanwhile, wilted even more, his eyes drooping.

Tristan prodded him. "Dude, I don't think you'll make it 'til the food comes."

"Yeah, I'm still on Domino time."

"See, now I'm wide awake." Joey leaned back in his chair and tucked his arms behind his head, gloating. "It's, what, noon or something to us?"

"Ten A.M.," Téa said, "but I wouldn't be too happy about it if I were you. You guys'll have to be up at six tomorrow and the first matches start at eight. Mokuba and Kaiba will be wide awake, but you'll be dragging."

Joey put his arms down, his gloat dissolving into a scowl. "I bet Kaiba went to Japan just before the tournament on purpose just for that."

Mokuba flashed him a weary yet smug smile, making Joey's scowl deepen.

Mai hissed in exasperation. "Can you at least wait until Kaiba is in the room before you let him get you all twitchy? Besides, you know how it works the night before a tournament. Friends today, enemies _tomorrow_."

Joey sulked. "I'm not the one too good to come to the pub and mingle with the commoners."

Mokuba sat upright, alert again in defense of his brother. "He just has work to do. It's not like Kaiba Corp grinds to a halt because there's a tournament."

Before Joey could reply, Mai shot him a warning look and he seemed to think better of it, taking a sip of his beer instead.

The waitress arrived with their food, and Duke and Cady were right behind her. They dragged over stools and Duke elbowed Tristan aside so they could squeeze between him and Mokuba. "We might need to get another table. Cady has a friend from Reading who is meeting us here around nine o'clock."

Téa shook her head. "Won't be a problem. Underage kids aren't allowed after eight, so Rebecca and Mokuba will have to be gone by then—what, I didn't make up the rule!" she said when Rebecca glowered at her. "And I have to leave, too. I have a meeting with Pegasus back at the hotel at eight." She was Pegasus's administrative assistant for the duelists and was responsible for most of their logistical arrangements.

"That'll work." Duke gave the waitress his and Cady's order while the others dug into baskets of fish, chips, and mashed peas that Joey mistook for guacamole and spit out of his mouth, much to everyone's disgust.

By the time they were all finished eating, it was a little after seven, and Mokuba looked like he was about to land face-first in his empty basket. Rebecca patted him on the back. "Okay, I think it's time we head back to the hotel, don't you? Tournament registration just closed, so I need to work on getting a list of the competitors, and you need to go to bed." She stood up and hauled him to his feet, then looked across him to Yugi. "I'll leave a list of competitors in the suite for you to look at when you get back."

"Check in with your grandpa when you get to the hotel."

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, _Onii-chan_." In this case, calling him _big brother_ was more of a weary accusation than an endearment.

"I'm serious. I'm calling your grandpa's room in like ten minutes, so you'd better have checked in with him."

It's not that he didn't trust Rebecca or Mokuba. Mokuba looked like he wouldn't be able to stay awake long enough to make it all the way back to the hotel anyway, and they were claiming to be just friends now, but still, Professor Hawkins was Yugi's mentor and like another grandfather to him. When he wasn't around, he trusted Yugi to look out for Rebecca, a charge Yugi took to heart.

As soon as Rebecca and Mokuba disappeared into the crowd, Duke coughed. "Okay, boys and girls, now that the kiddies are gone, I think it's time for another round on me. Gotta take advantage of the lower drinking age. Did you all have beers?"

Mai shook her head. "Cider and black. Serenity and Téa, too."

"I'll take a Diet Coke this time," Téa said. "I should probably be mostly sober when I meet with Pegasus."

Yugi saw Tristan give Joey a strange appraising look. "Coke for you, too, bro."

Duke scoffed. "What are you, his mother?"

"Sometimes." There wasn't a hint of humor or sarcasm in Tristan's voice. He crossed his arms and looked at Joey.

Joey nodded at him. "Yeah, Coke is good."

When the server left to get their drinks, Duke turned to Joey. "What was that all about?"

Joey shrugged. "I don't drink much. Got really plastered once when I was like fourteen, and decided I'd be better off not going there again."

"That must've been some killer hangover."

Joey shook his head. "Nah. Actually, I liked it. A _lot_. Stumbled home that night thinking, _okay, now I get why my old man likes this stuff so much._ Sobered up pretty quick after that, and called Tristan at like three in the morning and made him promise he'd never let me drink like that again."

A rueful grin spread on Tristan's face. "Man, I thought my mom was gonna kill us both for that one."

Joey smirked. "Yeah, but I didn't wanna ever be in a place where what my dad does makes _sense_ to me. And I don't wanna need years of AA just to get back to where I am now, either. So I try and be careful, and Tristan reminds me."

Yugi blinked. "I never knew that, Joey."

Joey shrugged again, looking a little self-conscious. "Not a big secret or nothing, it just never came up. It's not like we go out drinking much. A couple of times over the summer, and then we moved to America and we're not legal there yet, except for Mai, so…."

"You don't have to worry, _Onii-chan_. You're nothing like Dad." Serenity's eyes were wide and solemn as she put her hand on his arm.

He gave her a smile that was a combination of gratitude and sheepishness, then the server returned with their drinks. Joey took a sip of his Coke and made a face. "Bleh, it's warm."

* * *

The mercenary was waiting for him, bowing in greeting as he stepped off his private plane in Luxor. "Everything is ready, Mr. Monarch. My men wait just outside the Valley of the Kings. We will be in the tomb by midnight, exactly as you wished."

Monarch looked at his watch as he walked away from the plane toward the Executive Terminal, the mercenary falling into step behind him. It was almost half past ten, meaning it was half past eight in London. The Pharaoh's former little Vessel and his drooling devotees would be there by now, preparing for the tournament. And his servant should be there as well, waiting for the right opportunity. Everything was in place.

Without looking back, he addressed his hired agent "I take it the missing canopic jar was not discovered?"

"No, sir. All is as I promised it would be. My men will have no trouble taking care of the two guards—"

"No, leave the guards to me."

The mercenary stopped. "Sir? But I thought that was why you hired—"

"I hired you to do some heavy lifting, that is all. I have many servants, and they each have their own task." He thought again of the young man in London, and more importantly, the one who had pressed that young man into duty. Not a servant so much as a guardian, his most treasured weapon. He put his hand into the inside pocket of his suit coat, fingers lightly touching the one Duel Monsters card he kept there. Beside it, he could feel a small, smooth stone, and his fist clenching around it. As soon as he touched it, he could feel the power coming off it, enveloping his hand. He could almost see the green glow. With its power, he would be able to reach into the Shadow Realm and summon his guardian—not just a card, but the real thing—Reshef the Dark Being. And tonight they would crack a rift in the darkness so wide, the shadows would pour from that realm into this, granting him access to the Dark Games once more.


	8. Ice

**8. Ice**

The second time she had the dragon dream, she was ten. She was perched on a mountain, camouflaged by the snow that surrounded her, when a cry pierced her heart, tearing it in two. And then there was silence. Alarmed, she flew from her perch, looking for the boy she knew had cried out to her. When she found him, she was so gripped with fear for him, she nearly fell from the sky. He was three years older than the last time she saw him, but she knew him immediately. He was in the ocean, trying desperately to stay afloat in the frigid water among glaciers and ice floes. He was struggling, she could see, unable to swim properly because he was clutching something in his arms, something that weighed him down. Panicked, she swooped down on him, plunging into the freezing water, not caring about the cold that tore through her wings, her body, her lungs; only caring that she save the boy, that she keep him from drowning. She glided under him until she could feel his legs kicking against her neck as he tried to swim. Rising from the water, she felt him settle onto her back, gripping her neck with one arm, clinging desperately to her as she flew up, away from the water, and to the shore.

Gently setting him down on a wide expanse of ice, she tried to warm him with her breath, but it came out as white lightning instead of fire, and she could not warm him. He backed away, shaking his head and clinging to the thing he had been holding while trying to swim. It was the same black and gray-streaked egg. As she watched, he wrapped himself around it, cradling it the way a mother would a newborn baby. He rocked it gently, pressing his cheek against its smooth surface. It was then that she saw the egg was no longer ordinary, but precious. Perhaps the most precious thing ever, next to the boy himself.

_How can I take care of it all by myself?_ His worry came off him in waves.

_You are not by yourself. You have me. You always have me._

He shook his head. _No. There is only me. And the Egg. I'm all it has now, don't you see? Everyone else leaves us, but I will never leave it. I promise, I promise._

Her heart broke. _I won't leave you! You are not alone! _

He nodded slowly. _I know. But only I can protect the Egg. Do you understand? It's the only thing that matters anymore._

_No, it isn't. _You _matter._

I know I matter to you. But it isn't enough. It isn't enough to keep the Egg safe. Do you see all the ice? Ice everywhere. It's hard, and the Egg is fragile. It's cold, and the Egg will freeze. There's only one way to protect it, do you understand?

She understood, but she didn't want to understand. _She _wanted to protect them both, but she couldn't.

So the boy did the only thing he could do. He turned to ice. Not fragile ice, like an icicle hanging from the eaves of a roof, ice that melts under the first rays of the sun. His ice was like the glaciers themselves, the kind of ice that could sink ships.

And then a ship did come. It was black and red, and had three smokestacks that belched filth into the sky, blocking the sun from view, but the boy made of ice looked at the egg and looked at the ship. _This ship will take us where we need to go._

Are you sure that's the right ship? It's not a happy ship. It won't take you anywhere warm.

The boy sighed. _I'm a glacier. I don't need to be warm. I only need to be strong. _

_But the Egg, how will you keep it from freezing if you are a glacier?_

She could already see his answer, however. At the point where the boy's hand held the egg, he was not ice. He was a warm wool scarf, soft and thick, and he wrapped around the egg, keeping it safe. And the scarf arm pulled the egg into the shelter of the glacier where nothing could penetrate.

_Checkmate_, he said, and the Glacier and the Egg got on the ship and sailed away.

The dragon watched them go, and she cried, her tears turning to ice as they fell into the sea.

* * *

It went without saying that Duke's date had not come to London to see the British Open. Mai didn't count this against her; not everyone had to love Duel Monsters, and pre-Joey she certainly wouldn't have turned down a trip overseas on a luxury jet, especially not with a guy who looked like Duke. It came as no surprise, then, that Cady didn't know the first thing about the game and that her eyes would glaze over when talk turned to the tournament. What was surprising, however, was that her friend from Reading, a tall, pretty girl with light brown hair and brown eyes, not only knew quite a lot about Duel Monsters, but was a huge fan. When she arrived at the Queen's Head about an hour after Téa had left for her meeting with Pegasus, she stopped abruptly in the middle of greeting Cady and surveyed the table, her mouth hanging open in a round "O" of surprise.

"I… you… you're Yugi Mutou!" Her accent was clearly American rather than the British one Mai had been expecting.

Mai watched Yugi war with himself over the sudden attention. "I… yes." He blushed slightly, but gave her a confident smile.

The girl's eyes continued to travel around the table. "And Mai Valentine! And Joey Wheeler! Holy shit, Cady!" She turned on her friend. "You told me your guy's friends were tournament duelists, but you didn't tell me they were _the _tournament duelists!"

Cady looked bemused, but Joey quickly said, "That's us," and flashed a smile so wide Mai thought the top half of his head might fall off. She tried not to roll her eyes at him. Though she and Joey were pretty equally ranked, people often recognized her and knew her name simply because female duelists were relatively rare, whereas Joey always seemed to get lost in the very long shadow cast by his best friend. The fact that this girl had not only heard of him, but knew him by sight was a rare treat for Joey, and Mai didn't want to begrudge him that.

She reassessed this, however, when he said, "Pull up a stool there and join us. Joey Wheeler always has time to talk to a devoted fan."

A chorus of groans rang out, and Mai backhanded him in the shoulder. She looked at the newcomer. "Ignore him. His ego once ate Tokyo. They made a monster movie about it and everything."

Joey put up a protest, but the new girl smiled and sat down on Mokuba's vacated stool while Cady made quick introductions. "Paige and I were best friends in San Jose, but then her mom met a British guy and got married, and they moved here when we were sophomores in high school."

Paige looked around the table. "Mind if I smoke?" When she got a round of shrugs and head-shaking in response, she fished a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of her purse. "I was thrilled when Cady e-mailed and said she was gonna get to come to London for the British Open. I thought it was pretty funny, since she doesn't know a thing about Duel Monsters. Which explains how she could _completely neglect_ to tell me she was hanging with the _World Champions_." Paige glared at her friend as she lit her cigarette, then held it down at her side so it wouldn't blow smoke across the table. Not that it mattered; the atmosphere in the pub was so thick with smoke they'd stopped noticing it hours ago.

"Do you play Duel Monsters?" Yugi asked her.

Paige shook her head, blowing out a stream of smoke. "Not really. I mean, I play, but I don't compete at tournaments or anything. But I love to watch duels. I was so psyched to hear there'd be a major tournament in London, but I never in a million years thought I'd get to have drinks at a pub with Yugi Mutou. This is just _so_ cool. You all have to let me buy you a round."

They talked about Duel Monsters and past tournaments, everything from Duelist Kingdom to the ill-fated Duel at Sea until Cady looked like she was going to go comatose. Paige, on the other hand, was thoroughly enjoying herself and especially seemed to be hitting it off with Tristan.

"Hey Paige, why don't you watch the tournament with us?" Tristan smiled at her, barely hiding the eagerness in his voice. "Me and Duke and Serenity and our other friend Téa don't duel, so you're welcome to hang with us. Right?" He looked to Serenity for confirmation.

It was then that Mai noticed Serenity looked less than thrilled with this arrangement. "Oh, _sure_." She flashed Paige a fake smile that was out of character for Serenity, who was generally sweet to everyone.

Paige was looking at Tristan instead of Serenity. "Oh, I'd really like that."

Serenity watched them a moment, then abruptly leaned across the table. "Hey Yugi, I was thinking. Since so many of the duelists are here, it might be a good time for me to wander around and get a feel for where they are."

He looked at her a moment, as if weighing something. Eventually, he nodded. "Good idea, Serenity."

Joey, oblivious to the tightness in Serenity's voice, narrowed his eyes in warning. "You ain't getting a _feel_ for _no one_."

She gave him an irritable look. "I'm talking about the Shadow Realm, you moron."

Mai decided to jump in. "Give it a rest, Wheeler. I'll go mingle with her and make sure to keep your precious little sister safe from all the big bad mean boys."

Serenity made a face, but Joey shook his head. "Oh yeah, I like that _so_ much better. Now all these sleazebags can hit on my sister _and_ my girlfriend."

Mai crossed her arms and gave him a frosty glare. "So is it that you don't trust me, or you don't think I can handle myself?"

Joey opened his mouth, but then seemed to realize that there was no answer to that question that would not result in some very lonely nights, so he closed it again and growled through clenched teeth before relenting. "Fine, go."

* * *

Mai watched, impressed, as Serenity worked the room. Their personalities weren't anything alike; where Mai actively courted attention, as loudly and flirtatiously as she possibly could, Serenity was somewhat quiet and modest. She carried herself with the air of someone who was completely unaware of her gravitational pull on the opposite sex, but Mai marveled at the way she deftly handled them, slipping beyond everyone's grasp as if she were coated in Teflon. Mai, in contrast, was more of a Venus flytrap.

It didn't take long, however, for Mai to get bored. They were standing at the bar, drinking ciders and black purchased for them by a pair of American duelists Mai had never met before. The men were gone before the drinks were, and Mai was swirling her finger around the rim of her glass. "Everyone seem normal?"

"Define 'normal.'"

"Normal as in not Shadow Realm-y."

"Oh, well, that kind of normal, yeah, everyone's normal." Serenity giggled.

Mai shot her an accusing look. "You're drunk."

"Am not." Serenity put her drink down. "Okay, maybe a little. I'm not used to drinking."

"Any reason you feel the need to tonight?" Mai resumed swirling her finger along the glass's rim, trying to look as if the question had been nothing more than idle curiosity.

Serenity gave her a guarded look and shrugged. "No. Just 'cause we're in an authentic British pub and I can."

"Hm." Mai took a sip of her cider and decided on the direct approach. "You know, Serenity, you can't have it both ways."

Serenity frowned. "Can't have what both ways?"

"Tristan. You can't tell him you only want to be friends and then expect him to stay away from other girls until you're ready to take down the walls."

"Oh please, Tristan can do what he wants. I'm just disappointed that he'd be interested in someone like _that_."

"Someone like what? Paige seemed perfectly nice to me. Better than Duke's date."

"Oh come _on_! It didn't bother you the way she drooled all over Joey?"

Mai laughed, almost spitting out her drink. "You're joking, right? If anything, Joey was drooling all over _her,_ and that was mostly because she didn't say 'Joey who?'"

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Oh hon, you _are_ Teflon, aren't you?" Mai shook her head. "No, it doesn't bother me, not any more than the million other things he makes an ass of himself over, anyway. But if it did, it would be because Joey and I have a _relationship_. You do remember that you and Tristan _don't_ because _you_ turned him down, don't you?"

Serenity looked away, gazing off into the crowd. "That's not the point."

"That is _so_ the point. You're as pig-headed as your brother, you know that, kiddo?"

"I—oh fabulous, there's another one headed this way."

Mai purposely refrained from looking, checking her watch instead. It was just about ten o'clock, which meant they'd been flirting with duelists for about an hour now. "I'm bored with the men here, and we are _so_ not done with this conversation." She then thought about it a second. "Unless he's really hot."

Serenity raised her eyes just enough to look over Mai's shoulder without looking like she was looking. "I wouldn't say hot, but cute. Looks like a biker."

Mai made a face. "No thanks."

Serenity looked down into her drink suddenly, and Mai heard someone step up behind her. "Hey, I know you, you're Mai Valentine."

Mai's eyes widened at the familiar nasal drawl, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her drink. She turned too quickly, almost knocking her glass over in the process.

"Valon!"


	9. Shattered

**9. Shattered**

When she was sixteen, she had the dragon dream again. There was a hollowness in her heart, and she needed to find out why, so she flew and flew, her wings straining, the sun glistening off her blue-white back. Finally, she found what she was looking for: the ship that had sailed away six years before, taking the boy of ice and the dragon's egg with it. The ship looked different when she found it. It had been painted blue, and although smoke still came from the smokestacks, it was lighter, less cloying, and didn't block out the sun.

She circled the ship, landing lightly on its deck. She saw the boy there, still a glacier, but no longer really a boy. He was a teenager, tall and majestic, and he stood at the captain's wheel. But something was missing. It took her a moment to work it out.

_Where is your Egg?_

He didn't answer; he just looked off across the deck. The Egg sat alone in a corner, and she could see that it had a small hairline crack, barely visible, but it broke her heart.

_It had to be done, _the boy said without saying, and she could feel the ice holding back something. Something huge and festering and full of decay.

_What had to be done?_

I dropped it.

She wanted to cry. The Egg was everything to him! _It was an accident._

No. I dropped it on purpose.

She could not think, could not form any thought or feeling through the pain in her heart.

_I had to drop it, don't you see?_ And she could feel how desperately he needed her to understand. _I had to fight the monster controlling the ship. It was going to eat the Egg! I know it was! But to fight it, I needed both my hands. You can't fight a monster with only one hand. So I dropped it. And I kicked it away. And then I fought the monster. The monster is gone now, but the Egg is cracked._

She wept._ Why didn't you call me?_ _Fighting monsters is what I _do._ I could've fought the monster for you, and you wouldn't have needed to drop the Egg! Why didn't you call me?_

There was no answer, and now she understood what the ice was holding back. It was fear. He was afraid. Afraid that he'd lost the Egg forever, that he didn't deserve it.

She stretched her neck down beside him, protecting him with her wings like she had that first time they had met ten years earlier. And then she felt something against her foot._ Look!_

He looked. It was the Egg. It had rolled back to him.

He looked down at it a long time, and she could feel how much he wanted to pick it up, to cradle it once more, but he was still afraid.

_It's still your Egg,_ she reassured him. _It always will be._

I know.

He bent down and scooped up the Egg, his arm becoming a wool scarf once more. She could see that the crack in the Egg did nothing to mar its beauty. If anything, it was all the more precious and rare for it.

It was only then that she noticed the crack in the ice that was the boy. It was exactly the same length and shape as the crack in the Egg, only it ran much, much deeper.

* * *

"All right, I've had enough, I'm gonna go find Mai and Serenity." 

Joey was drumming his fingers restlessly on the table, and Yugi gave him a small smile as he tried to reassure his friend. "They're fine."

Joey, however, was in no mood to be reassured. "I'm not sitting here another minute while my sister and girlfriend get ogled by every duelist in the tournament. And I somehow don't think we'll be missed." He jerked his head toward the other end of the table where Duke, Cady, Paige, and Tristan sat.

Yugi had to agree that he and Joey would not likely be missed if they left the table. Cady had finally gotten Duke on a topic that didn't involve Duel Monsters, and Tristan had moved next to Paige, the two of them becoming more and more drawn into their own private conversation. Yugi was happy to see Tristan enjoying himself with someone; he had been grumbling for months that he felt like a fifth wheel now that Yugi and Téa and Joey and Mai had paired off. Yugi even feared Tristan was beginning to feel like Mai had supplanted him in their original foursome—a not entirely unwarranted complaint, Yugi had to admit. It probably was the main reason Tristan, Duke, and Serenity had gotten so close, even after the two guys' little contest over her had pretty much ended. And yet….

He glanced at Tristan and Paige. "I think you should just leave Mai and Serenity alone for a while."

"Why?"

"I dunno." Yugi shrugged, evasive. "Just seems like they wanted some girl time or whatever."

"That's what worries me." Joey slapped his hands down on the table. "C'mon Yuge. Let's go find 'em and then go rescue Téa from Pegasus's clutches."

"She has been gone a long time. I wish she'd get back."

"What time is it, anyway?"

Yugi looked at his watch. "Almost ten."

Joey whistled. "Geez. How long does Pegasus need to schedule a couple of tournaments?"

Yugi sighed. "You know Pegasus. He likes to hear himself talk."

"Yeah, but mostly to you or Kaiba, _Yugi-boy_."

Paige laughed at something Tristan said and took a drag from her cigarette. Joey shook his head, rising from his seat. "I'm serious, Yuge, I've had enough of the lovebirds over there. I'm finding Mai and Serenity and getting the hell outta here. You coming or not?"

Yugi tried to think of a way to stall him. "Lemme finish my beer."

"Are you kidding me? It's still mostly full! And it's all of what? Your second? We'll be here all night while you nurse that thing, you lightweight. Just take it with while we look for the girls."

There was no point in arguing anymore. "Okay, but I need to use the bathroom first."

Joey nodded, then slapped Tristan on the back as he rounded his end of the table. "We're gonna hit the head."

Tristan didn't even bother looking away from Paige. "Okay, good."

As Yugi followed in Joey's wake through the crowd, his left hand covering his pint glass so that it didn't slosh beer everywhere, he pondered Tristan and Paige. "Tristan seems to really like that girl."

"Ya think?" Joey looked back over his shoulder at Yugi with a broad grin. "Maybe now he'll leave Serenity alone."

Yugi wasn't sure what to say to that. He wanted to be unreservedly happy for Tristan, but he got the impression that Serenity didn't exactly want him to leave her alone, and Yugi felt conflicted. He wanted all his friends to be happy all the time, so the whole thing made him a little wobbly on his feet.

Either that, or it was the beer.

Joey noticed him swaying and put a hand out to steady him. "Whoa. Maybe one's enough after all. I don't think I've ever seen you drunk before, Yuge."

"I'm not drunk. Not much anyway."

"Oh man, Téa's gonna kill us all if you're hungover for the tournament tomorrow."

Yugi didn't feel like his speech was slurred or anything, he was just feeling a slight tinge of lightheadedness. "I'm fine. Just a little woozy, that's all."

But then he did feel something else, another sensation of _wrongness_, that something somewhere was not right. As if by instinct, he grabbed the new pendant he was wearing around his neck, the tiny little amethyst Dark Magician with a little emerald in the tip of its staff, as if by holding it, he could ward off whatever he was sensing.

"I hope so," Joey was saying as he walked ahead of him toward the sign that said TOILET, "'cause I don't wanna—"

Yugi never heard the rest of the sentence. His whole world went white as something cold and sharp and excruciating exploded through his heart like a jagged, rusting saw cutting him open. He clutched his chest, unable to cry out because it ripped through his lungs next, forcing all the air out of them. The pint glass slipped out of his fingers and hit the floor, spraying beer and shards of glass everywhere, but the pain was so consuming he didn't even hear it shatter as he collapsed to his knees amidst the broken glass and beer.

* * *

Joey groaned, putting a hand to his chest at a sudden twinge of indigestion, but it was forgotten immediately when a loud crash of breaking glass rang out behind him and he felt liquid and glass pepper his jeans. Startled, he turned around. 

Yugi was kneeling on the floor in spilled beer and shards of glass from his dropped pint glass. He was hunched over, clutching his chest and seemed to be struggling to catch his breath.

Joey tried not to panic as he dropped to his knees beside his friend. "YUGI!"

* * *

Not long after she had the dream where they boy dropped the Egg, the dragon dreams started coming regularly. No longer quiet moments shared between her and the boy, they were always battles in strange shadowy places. He would call her and she would fight for him. She found she was _good _at fighting. Her white lightning, so ill-suited for keeping him warm, was a brilliant weapon, and she used it against all of his enemies. Usually, the boy carried the Egg under his arm, but sometimes it was gone and she understood that someone had taken it from him, and that they were fighting to get it back. That was when she fought her hardest. 

Sometimes, the dreams were nightmares, like when strange cartoon monsters, including a hideous caricature of a white dragon like herself, had taken the Egg and were going to take the boy, too. They made her too ill to fight, and they attacked the boy. He disappeared, and she thought he might be lost forever. She awoke from that dream screaming, with her nightgown and hair sticking to her skin, soaked through with sweat. Her mother had been frantic, wanting to take her to the doctor, but the next dream the boy was back, and she was better again, so her mother forgot about the doctor.

Sometimes there were three of her, and the boy would combine all three of her back into one, making her into a giant three-headed dragon, and she was nearly unstoppable.

In many of her dreams, there was a wizard. He was tall and powerful, with magnificent purple robes, a tall pointed hat, and a staff with an exquisite green jewel set in its tip. Often she fought against the wizard, and she could feel the boy's need to triumph against it coming off him in waves. It didn't feel right, fighting this wizard, but she could deny the boy nothing. Sometimes, however, she fought alongside the wizard. She liked that better. There was something _right_ about fighting with the wizard, like they belonged together, a team that complemented each other perfectly, united against the shadows. But even when the dreams were good, like when she was fighting beside the wizard, they were exhausting. She would wake up drained, as if she'd been fighting a real battle instead of sleeping.

It was right after she started university, during the second year of regularly dreaming she was a dragon, that she'd begun sleepwalking. The sleepwalking always came with the shadowy dragon dreams. She would wake up and find herself on the roof of her flat, or at the edge of the River Cam trying to find a boat, or at the train station. Once, she even found herself at the airport, though where she'd been planning to fly, she had no idea.

As the dreams progressed, she began to notice a change in the boy, who wasn't really a boy, but a man now. He was still made of ice, but the ice seemed different. Polished. Less like a glacier and more like a beautiful ice sculpture. Not fragile, the way an ice sculpture was, but clear. He was still ice, but whatever fetid thing the ice was holding back seemed to be gone. She knew, somehow, that the wizard had been responsible for this change, and it made her like the wizard all the more.

Then one cold December night, when she was in her second year at university, she had a dream that was unlike any of the others. In this dream, she was in ancient Egypt. And in this dream, she wasn't just a dragon, she was also a girl dressed in tattered sackcloth. The man was there, but he was different, too. Not only wasn't he made of ice, he was an ancient Egyptian priest of some sort, dressed in flowing robes and an elaborate headdress. When she was a girl, he saved her. When she was a dragon, she saved him. In the end, she became the three-headed dragon again, ridden by a black-armored knight, and together with lots of other creatures, including the wizard and three beings so powerful she knew they were gods, they defeated a monster worse than any they had ever faced. When she woke up, she felt at peace for the first time in nearly three years.

After that, as abruptly as the dragon dreams began, they ended. She no longer walked in her sleep and she no longer dreamed of being a dragon.

The shadows were gone.


	10. Connections

**10. Connections**

"Hello, love. Been awhile."

Mai resisted the urge to smack the smirk right off Valon's face. He looked different; his brown hair was cropped much shorter than she remembered, although it still stuck up at strange angles. Not as much as Yugi's, but still. He had a growth of day-old stubble on his chin and was wearing a black leather jacket. He did indeed look like a biker, which he in fact had been when Mai knew him, only he looked rougher around the edges now and less like a kid trying desperately to impress. But for all the changes, she would've known his blue eyes anywhere.

"I…." Mai swallowed, and then she regained her composure. "It has been while. How've you been, Valon?"

"Better than the last time you saw me." He gave her a pointed look.

Ignoring the reference, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and gave him a breezy smile. "So what _have_ you been up to lately? You're in the tournament, I take it? I didn't know you still dueled." She had to fight down the sudden acidic burning she felt in her chest—no _way_ she would let him get to her.

They heard the sound of glass breaking somewhere in the pub. It distracted Valon a moment, and then he brought his gaze back to her, eyeing her a moment. "I'm in the tournament, yeah. Been living in New Zealand, actually, getting my chops back on the Oceania circuit. How about you? Rumor has it you're working for Pegasus."

"That's right."

He smirked again. "Bit ironic, don'tcha think? Considering you weren't on such friendly terms with him the last time I saw you."

Mai flinched, but just a little. With a frosty edge to her voice, she said, "There are lots of people in my life now that I wasn't on friendly terms with the last time you saw me." Then she remembered Serenity was still behind her, and the smile returned. "Oh, but I'm being rude. I haven't introduced you to my very good friend. Serenity, this is Valon. Valon, this is Serenity Wheeler."

It was with some satisfaction that she noted Valon's eyes widen at Serenity's last name. "Wheeler?"

As if she had no clue there was any tension between him and Mai, Serenity gave him an almost too-sweet smile and shook his hand. "I take it you've met my brother, Joey." Her voice was bright and innocent. "Have you dueled against him?"

"Brother?" Valon faltered. "Uh… yeah, we've dueled."

"Who won, if you don't mind my asking?"

Valon sniffed. "He did, actually." He gave Mai a brief appraisal. "Or so it would seem."

Mai's gaze turned a little colder. "Some battles were never meant to be fought." Then she gave him her best coy smile and said sweetly, "But Joey's waiting for us at a table in the back of the pub, if you wanna come say hi. I'm sure he'd love to see you."

He gave her a skeptical look. "Uh, yeah, maybe some other time, love."

"Well, I'm sure we'll see you at the tournament. Good running into you."

"Yeah, right then. I… don't be a stranger, Mai."

The sudden switch to sincerity unsettled Mai, but she just flashed her teeth in response, then took Serenity's arm and ushered her away from the bar.

* * *

Téa looked at her watch in annoyance as she left her hotel room after a brief stop to drop off a stack of papers from her meeting with Pegasus. It was almost ten. _That is two hours of my life I'll never get back._

Just down the hall, she passed the suite where the four Industrial Illusions Duelists were staying. She paused, listening a moment for any signs that the others had returned. She didn't hear anything and guessed they were probably still at the pub, which meant she'd probably have to drag them back herself. Well, at least she'd get almost an hour of fun in with the gang before last call. She started to head off again, then thought maybe she should check on Rebecca while she was here, so she knocked on the door one down from the main entrance to the suite. A moment later, Rebecca opened it. Her hair was back in pigtails and she was wearing a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms.

"Hey, Téa. " Then her expression turned suspicious. "Oh God, don't tell me Yugi sent you to check up on me."

"No, no. I just finished meeting with Pegasus and thought I'd check in before heading back to the pub." She looked over Rebecca's shoulder to the laptop open on the desk. "You find anything interesting in the list of contestants?"

Rebecca raised her eyebrows. "You might say that."

"Really? Who?"

"Valon."

Téa blinked. "Valon? _Orichalcos_ Valon?"

"Unless there's some other guy named Valon who's too good for a first _and_ last name."

Téa leaned against the doorframe. "Wow. We tried getting a hold of him when we contacted Rafael, but we never found him. Yugi'll wanna talk with him." She shook her head. "What about Mai and Joey, do they know?"

"I haven't told them yet, no. Joey'll _freak_, won't he?"

Téa considered this. "You know, I'm not so sure he will. He didn't talk much about dueling Valon after he got his soul back, but I dunno. I get the impression he kind of respected him in the end. It might bother Mai more. You know how she doesn't like to talk about those days."

"Well, I don't think Duke will like it, either. He was pretty mad about the beating we took when the two of us dueled him before he caught up with Joey." She sighed. "He didn't even need the Seal of Orichalcos to cream us. If he's as good as he was then, he's got a good shot of making the finals."

"Well, that's the least of our problems, if Valon is still connected with the Orichalcos in any way. It is odd that we couldn't find him when we were looking into Paradias and Dartz's connections." Téa paused as she felt a slight burning in her chest.

"Ow!" Rebecca put her hand on her own chest.

Téa frowned. "You feel that too? Like a burning in your heart?"

"Yeah," Rebecca said slowly. "Okay, I'm thinking that can't be good if we're both feeling the same thing at the same time."

Téa put her hand over her heart and closed her eyes. Something about this ache in her heart was familiar, like an echo from the past. It felt… like a connection that had been abruptly cut.

_It's like he was standing right beside me and now he's gone._ Joey's voice, another echo from the past.

And then she knew. She opened her eyes with a gasp. "Yugi!"

* * *

"What's wrong?"

Tristan looked at Paige as he rubbed his chest. "I don't know. Guess the fish and chips didn't agree with me." He blinked when he heard the sound of glass shattering from somewhere in the vicinity of the bathrooms.

Cady giggled. "Oops, sounds like one of the servers got clumsy. Hey, you okay, Duke?"

Tristan looked across the table to see Duke rubbing his chest as well. "You feel that too, Duke?"

"Just a little heartburn." Duke shrugged it off, but Tristan shook his head. Something was wrong. He wasn't sure what, but he could feel it.

He turned back to Paige. "I'll be right back, okay?"

"What's wrong?" she asked again.

"I… I don't know. I just gotta go find Yugi and Joey. Be right back."

* * *

"Yugi! What's wrong, buddy?" Joey was squeezing Yugi's shoulders, trying to resist the urge to shake his friend.

Yugi's eyes were squeezed shut and he was gasping for air. "I… can't… hurts… _ohhhhh_…"

"Yuge, breathe! You look like you're having a heart attack or something!"

A server holding a tray of empty glasses stopped. "Is he all right?" There was a note of alarm in her voice. "Shall I ring nine-nine-nine?"

"I… what?" Joey couldn't get his brain to interpret what she'd said as Yugi took in a shuddering breath.

"Emergency! Does your friend need an ambulance?"

"Jo…" Yugi was wheezing as he reached for Joey, still struggling to breathe. "_Hurts_… please…"

"_Jesus_." Joey tried to beat down the panic and get his brain to start working again. Serenity, he needed Serenity…

A crowd was starting to form and he dimly heard the server repeat something about nine-nine-nine, and then he heard a familiar voice call out. "Joey! YUGI!"

Joey looked up, almost melting in relief when he saw Tristan. "Tristan! Go find Serenity! Something's wrong with Yugi!" His friend immediately disappeared back into the crowd.

"Hang on, pal." Joey squeezed Yugi's shoulders again. "Help is coming."

* * *

"Mai, you are _smooth_." Serenity stayed close behind Mai as they squeezed through the crowd away from the bar and Valon. "You stopped that guy _cold_ when you introduced me. I wish I could handle guys as well as you do."

"You do just fine." Mai was feeling irritable and the odd tingle in her chest, probably from a combination of greasy pub food, smoke, cider, and jet lag, wasn't exactly helping her mood.

Serenity was undaunted. "So an old boyfriend, I take it?"

"Not really. Wannabe."

"But he obviously knew Joey from before. Was he at Battle City?" She wrinkled her nose. "I don't remember him."

Mai stopped. "Not Battle City, Serenity. California."

"Cali—" Serenity cut herself off. "Wait, are you talking about—? "

"The Orichalcos. Valon was one of Dartz's gang. He's the one who brought me into the fold, so to speak."

Serenity's eyes widened. "Oh."

Mai sighed. "God, I wish the past would just stay dead and buried. We should—" She paused, distracted by a growing commotion over in the direction of the restrooms.

Serenity frowned. "Mai… something's not right."

Mai narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. I just… my chest feels funny. I thought it was indigestion, but it feels like something else."

"That's weird." Mai grimaced, rubbing her chest. "I'm feeling the same thing. When did it start?"

"Right after Valon came up to us."

"Hm. Me too."

"Okay, that is weird." Serenity transitioned smoothly into medic mode. "Even eating the same food and drinking the same drinks and everything, it's a little too coincidental—"

"Serenity! There you are!"

They turned to see Tristan pushing through people to get to them. Mai did not like the expression on his face. "What's wrong?"

"I dunno, something happened to Yugi. He's sick or something."

Serenity and Mai exchanged troubled looks as Tristan reached them and grabbed Serenity's arm. "Joey sent me to find you. Come on, they're over by the bathrooms."

"Oh crap! My medic kit's in the hotel room!"

Mai held out her hand. "Give me your key card. I'll go back and get it while you go check on Yugi."

Serenity nodded, digging her key card out of her pocket for Mai before she and Tristan disappeared back into the crowd. Mai turned and headed toward the door.

Outside, she immediately regretted not going back to get her coat, which she'd left at the table. A mixture of snow and freezing rain was pelting down on her, and she was wearing nothing more substantial than a sheer silk blouse over a corset and a very short skirt. The hotel was only a short distance away, however, so she decided to suck it up rather than go back in for her coat. Rubbing her hands over her arms, she ignored both the cold and the way her chest was still burning and hurried in the direction of the hotel.

"Lovely night, yeah? Reminds me of the night we met."

Mai whirled around to see Valon behind her. "I don't have time to play games with you, Valon."

"I gathered, seeing as how you didn't bother to get your coat." He stepped up to her, shrugging out of his thick leather jacket and holding it out to her. "Here, take mine."

She regarded him a moment, her eyes narrowed and her hands on her hips. "What are you doing here, Valon? Been playing with any Orichalcos stones lately?"

He opened his mouth and dropped his arm, jacket hanging limply at his side. "I… bloody hell, what would I want with Orichalcos stones? And where would I get one even if I did want one?"

"You tell me."

He shook his head. "I have no idea what you're on about, Mai. Wanna help me out here?"

"I don't have time for this, Valon, but I swear to God, if you're here for any reason other than dueling, if you had anything to do with whatever just happened to Yugi—"

He frowned. "Yugi? What happened to Yugi?"

"I don't know, but I have to go get a medic kit from the hotel and I don't have time to chat. But know this, Valon. I'm not the same weak and desperate person I was three and a half years ago. I _like_ my life. It took me _three years_ to get it back after I let _you_ talk me into throwing everything away and no one—_no one_—is going to mess with me or mine, you got that? So stay the hell away from me, stay the hell away from my friends, and if I find out you have anything green and glowy in your pockets, I swear you will wish you'd never been born!"

He glared at her, then slowly put his jacket back on. "Right then. So good to see you, too, Mai. But don't let me keep you, since you're in such a rush." Shoving his hands into his pockets, he turned and walked away down the street while Mai turned in the opposite direction and dashed off through the freezing rain toward her hotel.


	11. A Shadow Realm Thing

**11. A Shadow Realm Thing**

Joey tried to block out the crowd as they pressed in on him and Yugi. People were muttering about the "King of Games," speculating on what had happened, whether or not he would be competing tomorrow. Annoyed, Joey looked up. "BACK OFF AND GIVE HIM SOME AIR, WOULDJA?"

The crowd shifted back slightly, and Joey turned his attention back to Yugi, who was still hunched over, moaning in pain, but was starting to breathe a little better. Joey's jeans were soaked through with beer as he knelt beside Yugi, one arm around his shoulder and the other holding his arm. Duke was there, too, kneeling across from them with Cady and Paige standing behind him. Tristan and Serenity, however, were nowhere to be seen.

"Hang on, Yuge, she'll be here any second."

Yugi took another gulp of air, gritting his teeth as if he were breathing ground glass.

_Dammit, where are they?_ Joey started grinding his own teeth.

"I… it's getting… better." Yugi was trying to reassure him, but every word still looked like it took a huge amount of effort.

"Shh, don't try and talk, buddy, just relax." He looked up at Duke. "Where the hell is Serenity?"

Duke only shrugged.

"I'm ringing emergency," a server said, a cell phone in her hand, but Yugi shook his head violently.

"No… I'm… fine…"

Joey grimaced. "Like _hell_ you are!"

"No, really… it's getting… better…"

"Move aside, let the lady through, she's a medic!" That was Tristan, and Joey breathed a huge sigh as he saw him appear with Serenity in tow.

Duke slid over to give Serenity room and she stooped down in front of Yugi. "What happened?"

Joey shook his head. "I don't know. We were talking, and the next thing I knew, he was on the ground like this. He couldn't breathe and was in pain."

"I can… breathe now."

Serenity reached over and took his wrist in her hands to take his pulse. "Where does it hurt?"

Yugi clenched his teeth. "Chest."

"What's it feel like?"

"Like… being stabbed."

"Is there any tingling in your chest or left arm?"

He shook his head.

"Okay, your pulse is a little fast, but it's regular. Can you take a deep breath?"

Yugi took in another deep breath and winced, but it sounded more normal.

"Does it hurt more or change when you take a deep breath?"

Yugi shook his head.

"And you've never had anything like this happen before, or any lung problems like pleurisy, right?"

"No."

"Okay, I'm gonna press on your chest in a few places. Tell me if it hurts more or changes, okay?"

He nodded and she pressed in several places on his chest. Each time, he shook his head.

The server leaned down over them. "Is he okay? Do you still need me to ring nine-nine-nine?"

"I'm fine." Yugi straightened and tried to stand up, but Serenity and Joey both put hands out to stop him. He tried to force his face into a smile. "It's much better now, really."

"I'll be the judge of that." Serenity held up a finger to the server and looked at Yugi. "What does it feel like now?"

"Better. Like… I don't know, like I ate something too spicy."

Serenity frowned. "Like indigestion?"

Yugi nodded. This seemed to disturb Serenity somewhat, but she turned back to the server and said, "He's gonna be okay. You don't need to call emergency."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Someone is bringing me my medic kit, and I'll check a few more things, but he's okay." She sounded calm and authoritative, but Joey couldn't mistake the worry in her voice.

"Okay, move along, nothing to see here." Tristan shifted into MP mode, trying to disperse the crowd. Duke got up to help, and Joey heard the two of them send Cady and Paige back to the hotel with arrangements to meet in the morning.

"You sure he's okay?" Paige asked as she and Cady started to walk away, but then Joey tuned them out and looked at his sister, whose eyes were still wide with worry, although she gave the server one last assurance that everything would be fine.

"Serenity, what's wrong? You don't look like everything's fine."

"Whatever it was, it wasn't medical. It—"

She was interrupted by another commotion as Téa arrived, frantic. She pushed her way upstream through the people as they started to leave, then sucked in her breath when she caught sight of Yugi on the floor. In an instant, she was on her knees beside him opposite Joey, taking Yugi's hand in hers. "What happened? I saw Mai in the hotel lobby and she said she was getting Serenity's bag because something happened to you!"

"Téa, I'm fine now." Yugi tried to placate her, but he clearly wasn't doing well. He could talk almost normally now, but his face was still pale and he was grimacing.

"You are _not_ fine." Téa had that Mother Hen voice she could get, and Joey cringed as she continued. "I _knew_ something was wrong. I could feel it. It was just like in Duelist Kingdom when you were dueling Pegasus."

Joey's eyes widened. "Holy crap, Téa, you're right! That's exactly what it felt like!"

"What what felt like?" Serenity asked, her voice low.

"Right when this happened, like a second before Yugi dropped his glass, I felt this pain in my chest, like indigestion. Only it wasn't like that at all. It was just like Duelist Kingdom."

Téa nodded. "I felt it too. So did Rebecca."

"I did, too." Tristan hunkered down beside them. "And so did Duke. It _was_ like Duelist Kingdom. I knew something was wrong."

Serenity looked thoughtful. "Mai and I felt it too. Right when we heard the glass breaking."

Téa bit her lip. "Just like Duelist Kingdom. Then it was just the four of us with the mark on our hands. Now we're eight. And we all felt it."

Serenity put her hands on her hips and looked at Téa. "Okay, you keep saying 'just like Duelist Kingdom.' Wanna clue the rest of us in on what that means?"

"When Yugi dueled Pegasus in that Shadow Game, Tristan, Joey, and I could _feel_ it when he was hurt. Because of that mark I drew across our hands, our bond to each other."

Duke shook his head. "Okay, that's a little freaky. I thought when you did that, it was just a _symbol_."

Joey snorted. "Yeah, like Duel Monsters is _just_ a card game."

Serenity closed her eyes and reached for Yugi again, putting her hand over his heart. She held it there a moment, frowning, then she opened her eyes and met Yugi's eyes.

"This is a Shadow Realm thing," Yugi said calmly, a statement more than a question. He wasn't grimacing as much anymore, for which Joey was relieved, but anything Shadow Realm related couldn't be good.

Serenity, however, looked unsure. "Not… I don't know. It's not like when Pegasus or Rex and Weevil were being controlled. And it isn't like when Téa was hurt, either. It's like… I don't know. Like the Shadow Realm, but far, far away. Like you're holding one of those tin can 'telephones' on the end of a string, and the other end is in the Shadow Realm."

"That can't be good." Téa shot an accusing look at Tristan. "This is _your_ fault."

"Me? What did I do?"

"You just _had_ to say it's been really quiet. I told you—"

"Okay, can we get up off the floor now?" Yugi was starting to sound a little more like himself.

Serenity turned her attention back to her patient. "You're not in pain any more?"

"A little, but I'd like to not be sitting in broken glass and beer."

"Let's go back to the table." Joey stood up, Téa right behind him, then the two of them helped Yugi up. It worried Joey a little how heavily his friend was leaning on them.

As they made their way back to the tables, Mai arrived with Serenity's medic kit. "Looks like I'm a little late. You okay, Yugi?"

Yugi nodded again, but Joey gasped as he saw her. "Jesus, Mai, you're soaked!" He let Yugi shift his weight to Téa, and then grabbed Mai's coat from her stool and threw it over her shoulders.

"I'm fine."

"You're not fine, your teeth are chattering!" He put his arms around her and rubbed her arms to try and warm her up a little as the seven of them sat down around the two tables.

While Joey pulled her closer to warm her with his own body heat, Mai looked around the table. "So who's gonna fill me in?"

"You know that burning we both felt? We all felt it," Serenity said. "At the exact same time that Yugi got really bad chest pains, like someone was stabbing him in the heart."

Mai narrowed her eyes. "What does this mean? Ramesses?"

Yugi, who was still resting against Téa even while seated, shook his head slowly, looking very disturbed. "I don't know, but whatever just happened, it's _bad_. Really bad."

Joey frowned and looked at his friend over Mai's shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. I just know… something really awful happened."

Téa stroked his cheek. "Okay, we need to not worry about that now. I just want to get you back to the hotel so you can lie down. You look exhausted."

"Yeah, I… I'm really tired. Let's sit here a couple minutes first, and then we can go back."

"I wanna check your pulse again." Serenity slid her stool closer to Yugi and began rummaging through her kit. "I should take your blood pressure, too, now that I have my bag. And we should probably have a doctor look at you in the morning."

"No, I need to duel in the morning."

Téa gave him a maternal glare. "Not if you're not well, you're not."

"I'm fine, really. Just tired and… worried." But he let Serenity put a blood pressure cuff around his arm.

Mai leaned in closer to Joey. "We need to talk a sec. Alone."

"Why? What's up?"

"Just come over here." She pulled away from him and got up from the table, dragging him after her.

"What?" he asked when they were a little ways away from the others.

"I… I don't know if it's related or not, but anyway, I wanted you to hear it from me before someone else told you. Valon's here."

Joey's eyes widened. "Valon?"

She nodded. "Serenity and I ran into him at the bar just before Tristan came looking for us. I saw him again outside when I went to get the medic kit."

"I…" Joey stopped, not sure what to feel. He didn't hold any animosity toward Valon and had even begun to respect him during their duel in California, but that didn't mean he was thrilled to have him around. "How are you with that?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I don't really wanna think about those times, but we've all moved past that, right?"

"Yeah, we have." He gave her a half hug. "What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing, it'll be fine. But…." She hesitated.

"But what?"

"I don't know. I think it's a little weird that right when he turns up, all the sudden something freaky attacks Yugi and all of the rest of us feel it."

Joey felt his jaw tighten. "Do you think…?"

"I don't know," Mai said quickly. "I confronted him outside, and he denied knowing anything about what happened to Yugi or having anything to do with the Orichalcos anymore."

"Do you believe him?"

She shrugged again. "I don't know, Joey. I… I don't think I'm the best judge of character when it comes to Dartz's old flunkies, you know?"

He reached over and brushed wet hair away from her face. "He can't touch you, Mai. You know that right? You've already fought this battle and you won. Nothing can take that away from you."

She sighed and leaned her forehead against his. "I know. I just… God, I don't wanna think about it anymore. I threw away everything that meant something to me for empty promises. For _worse_ than that."

Joey took her face in his hands and kissed her. "But you got it all back. And you won't lose it again. I promise. I'll talk to him, tell him to stay the hell away from you."

She pulled back from him. "No, Joey, don't. We need to keep an eye on him in case he's somehow involved with Ramesses or whatever happened to Yugi back there. I'll be fine. Really. Let's worry about Yugi, okay?"

"Okay." He pulled her back into another kiss. "I love you."

She smiled at him. "I know."

* * *

For two and a half years, she did not dream she was a dragon. She'd begun to believe the dragon dreams were gone for good, until one night last May, she dreamt she was a dragon one more time.

This dream was similar to the shadow dreams, where the boy—the man—called her to fight for him. She was fighting against a strange creature in dark armor with glowing spheres of light in his midsection, and she fought alongside many other creatures, including her friend, the purple-robed wizard. The monster they were fighting was powerful and could take control of her or her allies, forcing them to fight each other. There were other dragons fighting with her, too. A red dragon with a chain around its neck. A stunning black dragon with glowing red eyes. A sleek blue dragon with gold under its wings. It was this last dragon that the man fought so hard to protect, and it was then that she understood.

The Egg had hatched.

The dream ended when she sacrificed herself, giving up her power to the blue dragon because it was precious to the man and the man was precious to her. When she woke up, she was restless. Her sacrifice had not been in vain; she knew the strange monster with the glowing spheres of light had lost and the shadows were gone.

But…

They weren't gone. Not really. And she knew it was only a matter of time before the monster and the shadows would come back, and she would dream she was a dragon once more.


	12. Sleepless

**12. Sleepless**

Kaiba opened his eyes, his mind instantly alert and already beginning to tick off a list of things he needed to do. Rolling over, he looked at the clock on the nightstand and groaned. A few minutes before midnight, which meant it was almost nine in the morning in Domino. No wonder he was wide-awake.

He lay in bed in the dark hotel room a moment, listening to Mokuba's even breathing from the next bed, debating whether to try and go back to sleep or to just get up and get some work done. Between preparing for the tournament and the usual Kaiba Corp workload, he certainly had enough to do, but if he didn't at least try to adjust to London time sooner rather than later, he'd be exhausted by late afternoon and would lose his edge. He'd forced himself to stay up until nine—or six am Domino time. That meant he'd only been asleep for three hours, but he was used to staying up very late and getting up fairly early anyway, so even on only three hours of sleep he was wide awake, his body telling him he'd already overslept. He would've thought with all the traveling he did, he'd be used to time changes, but it never failed to make the first night anywhere difficult.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, hoping to lull himself back to sleep, but once his mind began processing and prioritizing his daily list, it was hard to shut down. Maybe if he got up and worked for an hour or two, he would be able to go back to sleep for a few more hours. Deciding this would be better than wasting his time lying here sleepless, he sat up.

Immediately, a sharp pain ripped through his chest like a knife digging into his heart and twisting. He cried out in agony, clutching at his chest and leaning forward as the pain tore through his lungs as well, knocking the wind out of him.

"What? What's going on?" Mokuba was sitting up in the next bed. A moment later, the bedside light came on, blinding him, and he heard Mokuba cry out again. "_Nii-sama_! Oh, my God, what's wrong?"

He sounded far away despite the fact that Kaiba felt the mattress shifting under Mokuba's weight as he climbed onto the bed beside him. Gritting his teeth, Kaiba tried to shut out the pain, tried to catch his breath, but the air wouldn't come. He could feel Mokuba growing more and more alarmed. _"NII-SAMA!"_

Kaiba fought harder to push back the pain, to BREATHE, and then suddenly he could. He drew in a great gasping breath before the pain cut through him again.

Mokuba grabbed his shoulders, babbling. "Oh, God, do you need me to call someone? What's happening?"

"I'm… fine…" Kaiba's teeth were clenched as he willed away the pain.

"_Fine_? You screamed like someone was attacking you! What's going on?"

"I… don't… know." He took another large breath, and the pain started to back off slightly. "It's… getting better… though."

"Are you having a heart attack or something?"

Kaiba looked up at his brother and tried to give him an annoyed glare, but it probably came off as a pained grimace instead. "Of course I'm not… having a heart attack."

"What about Serenity? She's an EMT, right? We could—"

"Mokuba." Kaiba had meant it to be a stern reprimand, but it came out much weaker than he'd hoped. He was, however, starting to breathe more normally again, and the pain in his chest was becoming bearable. "The last thing I want… is to alert the… Geek Squad. No… I'm fine."

"Seto—"

"Mokuba!" That came out more like a bark, and Mokuba jumped. Kaiba took another breath, grateful that he could do so without causing his chest to implode. "I'm fine. It's probably just jet lag."

"Jet lag." Mokuba cocked his head, his arms crossed in skepticism. "Yeah, right."

The pain had subsided to something like a burning tingle in Kaiba's chest, and he suddenly felt incredibly fatigued. "I'm tired, Mokuba. We both need to get some more sleep before the tournament. Go back to bed."

Mokuba regarded him a moment, then sighed. "Okay, fine. But if it happens again, I'm calling the front desk for a doctor."

"Go to bed, Mokuba."

With great reluctance, Mokuba climbed off Kaiba's bed and back into his own. Kaiba reached over to turn off the lamp, trying not to wince at the tenderness in his chest. The light flicked off and he lay back down, knowing he would now have no problem at all falling asleep.

"You sure you're okay, Seto?"

"I'm sure, Mokuba. Good night."

"Okay, _Nii-sama_. Good night"

Kaiba closed his eyes, letting sleep claim him once more.

* * *

All she knew for sure was that it was dark and cold. And that she'd been dreaming she was a dragon again.

This one had been unsettling. The man had called out to her and she could feel that he was in pain. Something was ripping him apart, and he needed her protection. She'd gone to him, flying as quickly as she could, but she couldn't find him. Everywhere she looked, he wasn't there. Not as a glacier, not as a person, not even as an Egyptian priest. He was just… gone. All she could find were shadows.

When she woke up, she _was_ in shadows. Or more correctly, pitch dark. She had no idea where she was, but she knew she wasn't in her hotel room in Luxor, Egypt, where she'd been staying over the winter holiday. That could mean only one thing: she'd been sleepwalking again.

Damn.

It had been almost exactly three years since that had last happened. Now she tried to get her bearings, but it was too dark to see anything. All she knew was that it was cold, and the air sort of echoed when she took a step, as if she were in a cave. Fortunately, she always seemed to have great presence of mind when she was sleepwalking—she'd once ended up at the Cambridge airport with a fully packed suitcase. Now she realized she not only was wearing a coat, but she could feel the weight of a backpack on her shoulders.

She slipped the backpack off and set it on the ground, crouching down to dig through it. The first thing she found was her mobile phone. Interesting. She'd left it plugged into the charger when she'd gone to bed. She pulled it out and flipped it open, the green glow from the LED screen almost hurting her eyes. The time display read 3:37. Well, at least she knew _when_ she was, if not _where_.

She pocketed the mobile to keep it close at hand, then went back into the bag. She found a water bottle, which she shoved aside for now, and then her hand curled around what she'd been hoping she'd packed—a torch. She pulled it out and turned it on, training the beam around her. It took only a moment for her to register where she was.

She was in the antechamber of a tomb. She even knew _whose_ tomb.

_How in the bloody hell did I get to the Valley of the Kings? _

She'd decided to take her holiday in Luxor because she wanted to get out of Cairo, and going home to England hadn't been all that appealing. In Luxor, she could spend some time studying the tombs of the three recently discovered pharaohs about whom she would be writing her master's thesis. Given that, it wasn't too surprising that her somnambulism would bring her here, to her favorite of the three tombs, but still… How the hell had she gotten herself across the Nile and all the way out here in the middle of the night? She was in the antechamber of a tomb at 3:37 in the bloody A.M. How had she managed that?

And then the hairs on the back of her neck stood up as another thought occurred to her.

Where were the guards? How had she made it past the elaborate security system protecting the tomb?

This tomb was not open to the public. As a grad student doing research, she'd visited many times, of course, but it had required special identification just to get near the opening in the cliff. The tomb was undergoing an extensive restoration process in the hopes that it could eventually be opened to tourists. In the meantime, like all the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, it boasted sophisticated security and at least two security guards would be stationed outside. And yet… here she was, 3:37 in the morning, standing in the antechamber.

Something was very, very wrong.

She stood up slowly and used the torch to try and get a better look around her. As the light fell across the various objects stored here—furniture, chariots, personal items from the pharaoh's life—she let out a gasp.

The chamber was an absolute shambles.

Furniture pieces that had been going through a painstaking restoration process were smashed and splintered as if someone had taken an ax to them. Treasures that had once lined the walls were either missing or destroyed. She felt her heart in her throat as she surveyed the damage. _Did _I_ do this? I couldn't have done this…_ Never in the past had she destroyed anything while sleepwalking. Usually she'd just been going somewhere—the airport, the River Cam, the train station. And now a tomb. A vandalized and desecrated tomb. She swallowed. It hadn't been her, couldn't have been her. Who, then? And _when_? If the tomb had been desecrated before tonight, she would've heard about it. Which meant it must have happened tonight….

Fear pricked her skin and she pulled her backpack onto her shoulders once more and started heading quickly toward the exit, praying that whoever had done this was long gone, but then the light from her torch fell across a broken jar and she stopped short. A canopic jar, shattered. Its contents, which had once been the entrails of the tomb's resident, had long since decomposed past recognition, but what was left wasn't just smashed on the floor with the jar. It had been torn apart and then smeared along with something that was either ink or quite possibly blood across the stone floor, deliberately. She put her hand to her mouth, appalled at the sight as she realized what else they might have done. _They wouldn't, they couldn't, it'll be fine, they just wanted the treasures…_. But she had to know for sure. Turning in the opposite direction, she trained the beam from the torch ahead of her, ears alert for any indication that the grave robbers were still about, and walked slowly from the antechamber down deeper into the tomb. Down into the burial chamber

When she reached the burial chamber, she stopped short, the beam falling across the remains of the other three canopic jars, and then up to the sarcophagus—or what remained of it.

_Oh God oh God oh God, _she thought wildly, then leaned over in the doorway and promptly threw up onto the stone floor. Without looking back at the sarcophagus, she stumbled out of the room, back up into the antechamber and then outside into the cold night air.

Once outside, she fell to her knees, retching again. With a shaky hand, she reached into her backpack and pulled out the water bottle, rinsed her mouth out, and spat it out onto the ground. She looked around, hoping to see some sign of the security guards, but there was none. Her hand quivering uncontrollably, she put the water bottle back and fished her mobile out of her pocket. She'd intended to ring the police, but her mind wasn't working properly and instead she dialed the only number she could think of off the top of her head. Stupid, really; it was not even four in the morning. The professor's mobile certainly would be turned off.

She was both surprised and greatly relived when after two rings, he answered, his voice a mixture of sleepiness and alarm that one would expect from someone receiving a phone call at this hour of the morning.

"Professor Julius? It's… it's Sara Drake, sir."

"Sara?" The professor sounded more alert now. "What's wrong?"

"Something… oh, God, Professor, something dreadful has happened. I… oh, God, someone desecrated his tomb. And the body, Professor…" She fought down the urge to throw up again.

"Sara, stop. Whose tomb? I don't understand."

"Seto, sir. Someone has desecrated Seto's tomb."


	13. Duat

**13. Duat**

By the time they received their duel schedules at seven o'clock, every competitor in the tournament had heard that Yugi Mutou had had some kind of attack in the pub the night before. Annoyed by the gossip and feeling every bit the Pharaoh, Yugi spent much of the morning dispelling the rumors with a swagger that indicated not only could he still compete, he intended to win. The truth was, he did feel fine, at least physically. Mentally, however, he wasn't quite as well. A feeling of dread knotted the pit of his stomach—the sense that something terrible had happened had not gone away. If anything, it had worsened. But until he knew why he felt that way, there was nothing he could do other than go ahead with the tournament.

Munching on crumpets and jam at a table near the food vendors in the convention hall, Yugi looked over the schedule with Joey, Mai, Téa, and Rebecca. Duke was already in the exhibitor's hall setting up a Dungeon Dice Monster's exhibition for later in the afternoon, Tristan was off looking into the convention hall security, and Serenity was meeting with duelists for a quick once-over before the matches began. Duels were scheduled every half hour starting at 8:00, with each duelist competing six times throughout the day. At the end of the day, the sixteen duelists with the highest rankings would advance to the second day of competition, which from that point on would be single elimination format. The eight winners of tomorrow's duels would then advance to the third day of competition on New Year's Eve, with the championship duel occurring just before the big New Year's Eve party.

For the first morning of the tournament, Yugi and Joey both had duels at 8:00, as did Kaiba. Mai and Mokuba each had 8:30 matches, and Rebecca's first duel was at 9:00. All of their first opponents were people they'd never heard of before.

Joey looked at the names of all the competitors. "You notice who's not on the list? Rex and Weevil."

"Must be the time of year," Téa said. "Bugs and reptiles hibernate in the winter."

Joey laughed, but then sobered quickly as he exchanged an uncomfortable look with Mai. "Uh, Yuge, there is someone competing you're gonna wanna talk to. Valon is here."

Yugi raised his eyebrows and looked from Mai to Joey. "Really?"

Joey nodded. "I think—"

"Hey Yugi!" It was Mokuba, trotting down the hall to join them at their table.

"Yo, Mokuba." Joey waved his arm in greeting, then looked around. "So where the hell is your brother? Is he even _in_ England? Maybe that was just a hologram we saw checking into the hotel yesterday."

"Shut up, Joey." Mokuba pulled on Yugi's arm, forcing him out of his seat. "I need to talk to you, Yugi." When he'd dragged Yugi a few feet down the corridor, he asked, "Is it true what everyone's saying? That you had some kind of attack or something last night?"

Yugi scowled in annoyance. "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Mokuba did not look amused. "I'm serious. What happened?"

Yugi sighed and leaned in close to Mokuba so random passersby wouldn't overhear. "I don't know what it was. Something weird. I got this sharp pain in my chest and couldn't breathe for a minute, but I'm fine now."

Despite Yugi's reassurance, Mokuba looked even more alarmed. "Yugi, listen. Seto would kill me if he knew I was telling you this, but the same thing happened to him last night."

"_What?"_

"Seto woke up in the middle of the night screaming in pain. It went away after a couple minutes, and he kept saying he was fine, but I swear I thought he was having a heart attack."

"Mokuba…" Yugi ran a hand over his hair, pressing it flat as he tried to think. "What time was this?"

"Midnight. Is that when it happened to you?"

"No, it was ten o'clock."

"What do you think it is? Do you think someone is trying to keep you and Seto out of the tournament?"

"It's a good possibility." Yugi chewed his lip a moment. "Remember how Evan Haines kept trying to keep the two of us out of the Duel at Sea tournament? It could well be that Ramesses is behind this. Serenity is pretty sure it isn't a regular medical problem. More like something related to the Shadow Realm."

"The Shadow Realm!"

Yugi put his hand on Mokuba's shoulder. "Your brother should have Serenity take a look at him."

"Oh yeah, _that'll_ happen. I told you, he'd kill me if he knew I'd told you."

"Mokuba, this is serious. Try to convince him. If someone is attacking us, we need to figure out who, how, and why. How is he this morning?"

"He says he's fine, but he wouldn't tell me if he wasn't."

Joey came over to join them. "So what's up, Yuge?"

"Nothing," Mokuba said quickly, then looked behind Joey were Rebecca, Mai, and Téa were getting up from their table. "Hey Rebecca, come with me to watch the beginning of Seto's duel, 'kay?"

"Sure." She turned to Yugi. "Do you mind if I go with Mokuba instead of watching your duel, Yugi?"

"No, that's fine," he said absently, still thinking about what Mokuba had told him.

"You'll come to mine, though, right?"

"I should be done with my first duel by then, yeah."

"Okay, see ya." She waved as she and Mokuba headed off down the convention center corridor.

"What was that all about with Mokuba?" Téa asked.

"Well, I don't think Mokuba wanted me to say anything, but this could be really important. Kaiba had an attack like mine last night."

Joey's eyes got very round. "Say what?"

"That can't be good." Mai shook her head.

"No." Yugi looked at his three friends. "Listen, let's go find Serenity and Tristan. Between the two of them, maybe they can figure out if there's a connection."

"You mean besides you being the two top-ranked duelists in the tournament?" Téa asked. "It sounds like Duel at Sea all over again. Someone's trying to keep you out."

"Mokuba and I were thinking the same thing, but maybe Serenity can think of a causal link."

Téa cocked her head. "What, like if you ate or drank the same thing?"

Yugi nodded, but Joey said, "I don't know, Yuge. Except for like two seconds at check-in, we didn't even see Kaiba yesterday, and you've been in two different countries for the last month. Not a lot of common ground here."

"I know, but we should check out everything." Yugi crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders, feeling that sense of _wrongness_ again.

Téa's brow creased. "What?"

"I just… I don't like this. I can't shake the feeling that something really bad happened."

* * *

Predictably, Kaiba was dominating his first duel within the first fifteen minutes, so when Rebecca and Mokuba left twenty minutes in, there was no doubt he would win. Mokuba's duel, naturally, was in the farthest corner of the convention center from his brother's, so they made their way through the crowd at a brisk pace, Rebecca sipping on a soda she'd bought at a concession stand.

"Oh look, there's Mai!" Rebecca pointed to where she saw Mai making her way toward one of the competition halls. "I think she's dueling at the same time as you. Let's wish her good luck!"

"Rebecca, I'm supposed to be dueling in like five minutes. I'm gonna be late as it is!"

Rebecca dismissed his complaint with a wave of her hand. "We'll be fine, it's just around the corner." Then she stopped, wrinkling her nose in curiosity. A figure in a long black hooded cloak suddenly materialized from the crowd and bumped squarely into Mai, jostling her and almost knocking her deck out of her Duel Disk. Mai grabbed for her cards and barked something at the offender without looking at him, but Rebecca could see his hood slip down off his head for just a moment before he disappeared back into the crowd. Rebecca's eyes widened in a start of recognition. "What's _he_ doing here?"

"Rebecca, let's _go_!" Mokuba yanked her by the arm, knocking the soda out of her hand. It crashed to the floor knocking the top off and splattering Coke everywhere. She managed to jump out of the way just in time to miss getting splashed.

"Hey! Now you owe me a Coke!"

"Whatever." Mokuba yanked on her arm again. "I just don't want to be late. Seto will have a cow if I have to forfeit my first duel."

"Okay, okay, I'm coming." She turned to jog after Mokuba, the man in the cloak forgotten.

* * *

Yugi had won his first duel in less than half an hour, so he and Téa decided to go watch the last part of Joey's duel. They joined Serenity, Tristan, and Tristan's new friend Paige in time to watch Joey come from a two-thousand-point deficit to win with an attack from Red-Eyes Black Dragon and a lucky roll from Graceful Dice. After Yugi and Joey congratulated each other on their first victories, they split up again, Yugi and Téa headed for Rebecca's duel while Joey, Serenity, Tristan, and Paige opted to watch the last part of Mai's duel.

When Yugi and Téa reached Rebecca's dueling area, she was waiting impatiently, arms crossed in annoyance. "About time! I thought no one was gonna come and watch me!"

Yugi looked around. "Where's your grandfather?"

Rebecca shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't seen him since last night." Her brow creased in worry. "You don't think anything happened to him, do you? It's not like him to miss one of my duels."

"If he doesn't show up in the next fifteen minutes, I'll go back to the hotel and look for him," Téa said, and Rebecca nodded her thanks.

"Hey, Becks!"

Rebecca's face brightened at Duke's cheery voice. "Duke, you made it! I thought you had to do the Dungeon Dice Monsters thing."

Duke joined them, Cady at his side. "Nah, not until later. You know I wouldn't miss my favorite duel chick." He gave Rebecca a big bear hug. "Give 'em hell!"

"You got it." Rebecca turned to take her place for the duel.

She got off to a strong start, and her opponent was already down four hundred Life Points after just two turns when Professor Hawkins arrived. Yugi was relieved to see him… until he saw the look on his face. "Professor, what's wrong?"

Professor Hawkins, looking distinctly rattled, ran his hand over his gray hair. "Yugi, I…." He stopped, then started again. "I'm afraid I have terrible news. I got a phone call—"

Yugi felt his heart pound. "Is it my grandfather?"

This startled the professor. "What? No, no my boy, this has nothing to do with your grandfather."

Yugi breathed a small sigh of relief, but the dread in his gut didn't dissolve completely.

Professor Hawkins put a hand on Yugi's shoulder. "I must speak with you somewhere private. You and Seto Kaiba."

Kaiba? So then this had something to do with whatever had attacked them. The dread settled further into his stomach like a rock.

Professor Hawkins glanced at Téa then looked back at Yugi. "You'll probably want Téa, Joey, and Tristan to come, too."

"Professor, what is it?"

"I'd rather not say here. Let's go find Seto Kaiba and your other friends."

"Now? Before Rebecca finishes her duel?"

"I'm afraid this is rather urgent." The professor looked at Duke. "You'll stay and cheer for Rebecca and give her my apologies?"

"Sure, Professor." Duke's brow creased in concern. "Anything I can do?"

"Nothing right now. Yugi, shall we?"

Yugi, however, didn't move. "Professor, please tell me what this is about."

Professor Hawkins sighed and looked at him, his eyes hollow and sad. "I got a phone call from Ishizu Ishtar. It's about Atem. Someone has desecrated his tomb."

* * *

"Yugi, are you there?"

Yugi stared at the speakerphone in the middle of their hotel suite, trying to absorb what Ishizu had just said. He felt like someone had hurled something at him roughly the size of a Volkswagen bug. The description of Atem's and Seto's tombs, of the thefts and vandalism discovered in the middle of the night last night—that he'd taken in stride. As an Egyptologist, he decried the loss of artifacts of historical significance. As the former bearer of the Millennium Puzzle, he worried about the power inherent in some of those artifacts. As Atem's other self, he was angry at the theft and destruction of personal possessions that had held emotional value to him. But ultimately, they were still only _things_.

This, however…

"Yugi?" Ishizu's voice sounded tinny through the speakerphone.

Yugi wiped his mouth, struggling to put words around the question he needed to ask. "I… wh-what do you mean? Exactly how was his… the body, _how_ was it desecrated?"

Now the silence was on the other end of the phone. Yugi felt Téa huddled against him, a death grip on his hand as they waited for her answer.

"It was quite thorough," Ishizu said at last, a tightness in her voice that was unusual for someone who always was serene and composed. "Three of the canopic jars housing the various internal organs were all smashed, the contents torn apart and smeared with some sort of animal blood—"

Téa gasped and Tristan, sitting on Yugi's other side, turned his head to the side. Joey, who had been pacing behind them, stopped and groaned in disgust. Only Kaiba, seated opposite them, remained impassive, his arms folded across his chest, his face stoic.

Professor Hawkins, standing off to the side, leaned in toward the speakerphone. "Only three? Where was the fourth canopic jar?"

"Missing. There was an empty replica in its place, smashed like the others."

The professor frowned. "A replica? Why would someone put a replica in the tomb only to smash it?"

"The police speculate that perhaps the original was removed at an earlier point, perhaps as a test run for getting past security. Or its theft may be completely unrelated."

A thought occurred to Yugi, bringing a new feeling of dread with it. "Which one was missing? It wasn't Duamutef, was it?"

There was a pause before Ishizu answered. "Yes, it was. How did you know?"

"The stomach." Yugi took the hand Téa wasn't gripping and held it to his own stomach. "That's what I felt."

"Yugi?" Ishizu's voice sounded confused.

"Nothing. Finish telling us what happened."

There was another pause, and then Ishizu resumed her description. "Seto's tomb was the same as Atem's, only all four canopic jars were there. As for the bodies themselves, they were stabbed through the heart and mutilated in…." She trailed off. "Well, it was thorough. Both bodies have been completely destroyed."

Yugi squeezed his eyes shut as the VW bug slamming into him morphed into something like a full-sized Greyhound bus doing eighty. He felt the room spin around him, then hands gently grip his shoulders from behind, stabilizing him. Joey.

"Yuge? What does this mean? 'Cause I know I'm grossed out, but this is sorta what you do, so I'm guessing the fact that your face is the color of Blue-Eyes White Dragon means there's more to this than a really huge ick factor."

Yugi swallowed, unable to speak.

Professor Hawkins answered for him. "You're right, Joey. The ancient Egyptians believed the body was necessary for the spirit's existence even after death. That's why Egyptian mummies are so perfectly preserved. The internal organs—liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines—were removed and stored in jars. The brain was thrown out. The heart… well, the heart was believed to be the center of a person's being. It was preserved inside the body. When a person dies, his or her heart is judged by Anubis, the god of the underworld. He weighs the heart on a scale against a feather from the goddess of justice. If the heart is too heavy, the spirit is judged evil. A demon called Ammit eats the heart, and the spirit is doomed to the underworld, Duat, where it can only survive for a short while before it simply ceases to exist. If the heart balances with the feather, the spirit is judged righteous and may join Osiris in the spirit world."

"Okaaaay." Joey still sounded confused. "And this is related to the… to what happened how?"

Ishizu took up the explanation. "In the ancient beliefs, there are nine parts to every person's being. The _Ba_, the _Ka_, the _Akh_, the _Sahu_, the _Sekhem_, the Body, the Shadow, the Heart, and the Name. I know you have discussed at length the _Ba_ and the _Ka_ and how they relate to Atem and Yugi."

"The _Ba_ is the part of the soul that connects them. The _Ka_ is their individual souls," Téa said.

"More or less. The _Akh_ is the transformed spirit after death and the _Sahu_ is the bodily form the _Akh_ takes as it travels to the spirit world. The _Sekhem_ is difficult to explain, but basically it is the life force of the transformed _Akh_. The Body, the Shadow, and the Heart are self-explanatory. The Name… well, you saw for yourself the importance of the Name when you were with the Pharaoh in the Memory World. Not only did his name hold the power to defeat Zorc, it was necessary for Atem to transition into the afterlife.

"When he sealed his spirit, his _Ka_ into the Millennium Puzzle and erased his memories, especially the memory of his own name, he rendered himself unable to go to the afterlife. When you recovered his name and Yugi prepared for the Ceremonial Battle, he was separated into two beings. What we saw as Atem was the _Sahu_. When Yugi defeated him, he had all the necessary elements. His heart was weighed as they dueled, and you witnessed the transformation to _Akh_ as he moved into the spirit world."

She paused before continuing. "But a body and a heart are required to sustain the spirit in the afterlife. Without the body, there is nowhere for the spirit to rest. And the heart…. Ammit destroying the heart is what dooms the spirit to Duat. If the heart is destroyed another way—"

"The spirit is doomed," Téa said, squeezing Yugi's hand tighter. He wasn't sure if she was trying to give comfort or seek it.

Behind them, Joey gripped the back of the couch. "Doomed _how_?"

Yugi made a small sound in the back of his throat and everyone else went silent. "Duat is the Shadow Realm, Joey. If Atem's body and heart were destroyed, then his spirit was sent to the Shadow Realm."


	14. Leaving

**14. Leaving**

"Bullshit." Joey resumed his pacing behind the couch again, trying to keep himself from hitting something—anything—to dispel his rage. "This is bullshit."

"Joey—"

Joey cut Professor Hawkins off. "No. You're telling me after everything we went through for _three years_—after everything _he_ went through—after he saved the _world,_ and Yugi did that whole battle thing to send him to heaven or whatever you wanna call it, you're telling me Ramesses gets to call 'do-over' send him to the Shadow Realm anyway?"

Ishizu's voice filtered in over the speakerphone. "We don't know for certain it was Ramesses—"

"Oh _bullshit!"_ Joey's hands clenched in fists, nails digging into his palms. "We know damned well it was Ramesses. But this… this is _bullshit_. Atem was done. Finished. That was the whole goddamn _point_. He did what he had to do and then he got to go _home_. Game over. There ain't no do-overs after the game is _finished_, dammit. This is just so _wrong_."

Tristan tried to placate him. "Dude, chill."

"_Chill_? Are you freaking _kidding_ me? I… no. This is just not cool."

"This isn't about _you_, nimrod." Tristan tilted his head toward Yugi.

Joey stopped short and looked at his friend sitting on the couch, shoulders hunched and head bent forward. "Yuge, I…"

"I can't talk about this now." It came out like a croak, and Yugi pried his hand from Téa's vice-grip to wipe his eyes. "I… I have to go to Egypt and see what happened for myself. Then we… we can figure out what next."

Kaiba stood up from his seat suddenly. "_What_?"

They all looked at him, startled. Other than to complain that this had better not take long because he had his second duel at 10:30, it was the first time he had spoken since they'd dragged him away from Mokuba's duel. Joey had all but forgotten he was even in the room.

"You're in the middle of a _tournament_. You can't go to Egypt!"

"_Tournament_? What the hell is the matter with you?" Joey redirected his fury toward Kaiba. "This is a little more important than a goddamn card tournament!"

Téa leaned forward in her seat toward Kaiba. "You should go too, Kaiba. The other Seto's spirit would have been sent to the Shadow Realm, too, same as—" She stopped abruptly, as if the words had lodged themselves in her throat and couldn't come out. She blinked, her eyes glassy. "This affects you just as much as it does Yugi. Why else do you think you had that attack in the middle of the night?"

Kaiba's expression darkened. "What are you talking about?"

Joey shook his head at Kaiba in disbelief. "Oh come off it! We know you had some sort of attack in the middle of the night. Chest pains, like a knife ripping through your heart, just like Yugi, right? _A knife ripping through your heart._ You don't think that's connected to someone _stabbing the heart out_ of the body of the pharaoh that used to be you?"

Ishizu's voice cut in suddenly over the phone. "What are you talking about? What attacks?"

Yugi explained. "It…it felt like a rusty saw ripping through my chest. Last night. I'm guessing it was when… it happened."

"When was this, Yugi?"

"Ten o'clock."

"So midnight here, which is within the time frame we believe the tombs were desecrated. And you, Seto Kaiba? You had a similar experience?"

Kaiba was still glaring at Joey, his expression hard, but he answered Ishizu. "It was nothing. Some chest pains and then they went away."

"Mokuba said you were screaming in pain," Yugi said, though without much strength behind it.

Kaiba's glare shifted from Joey to Yugi. "Mokuba had no business—"

"Kaiba, when did this happen?" Ishizu asked, her tone authoritative.

Kaiba relented and sat down again. "Midnight."

"So two A.M. here. Also within our time frame. This is worrisome, if the desecrations were so brutal that the two of you _felt_ it happen."

"All the more reason we should go to Egypt," Téa said, then gave Kaiba a pointed look. "All of us."

"This has nothing to do with me." Kaiba turned to look back at Yugi. "I understand this is personal to you, Yugi, but did it ever occur to you that the whole point of this little exercise was to get exactly this result? To get you and me to pull out of the tournament? Do you really wanna play right into Ramesses hands?"

Joey couldn't take it any more. "Oh give it a rest, you arrogant, self-centered son of a bitch. The only thing you care about is the title. You just wanna take another crack at Yugi and the title, never mind what else is going on."

"Don't be a moron, Wheeler. Yes, I want a chance to get back _my_ World Champion title, but that's not what this is about. This is about a responsibility we have to the International Duel Monsters Tournament Commission to finish a tournament we signed up for, and this is about not letting this Ramesses lead us around by the nose."

Yugi shook his head. "It doesn't matter, Kaiba. I have to go. I can't… I can't pretend this didn't happen."

"I'll be right there with you, buddy." Joey clapped his hand on Yugi's shoulder, and Téa and Tristan nodded in quick agreement.

"Of course we'll all go," Téa said.

Yugi twisted to look up at Joey. "Joey, you don't have to do this. You don't have to withdraw from the tournament."

"Yeah, I really do."

Kaiba snorted. "Yugi, no one gives a rat's ass if that third-rate hack cuts and runs, but you? You're the _World Champion_ and you represent Industrial Illusions, the creators of the game. Do you think Pegasus is going to let you just walk off in the middle of a tournament? How is he supposed to explain that to his investors? To the press?"

Téa bristled. "That's _my_ job. Two hundred duelists packed into a pub last night saw Yugi have something that looked an awful lot like a heart attack. Pegasus can tell the press Yugi had to withdraw for health reasons, and that his best friend withdrew to be by his side."

Kaiba shook his head. "It's a public relations nightmare. The press will be hounding you about your health until the day you die if you do this. Pegasus will never go for it."

"Since when do you care what Pegasus thinks?" Tristan asked.

"STOP, all of you!"

They all stopped, the distress in Yugi's voice silencing them. Joey clenched his fists again.

When it was clear the arguing had stopped, Yugi continued, quieter now, his voice cracking slightly. "Kaiba, do what you want, but I _have_ to go. This isn't just some piece of the ancient past we're talking about. This is the _other me_. Nothing else matters, do you understand that? _Nothing_."

"Yugi," Ishizu said, "I expected you would want to come right away. I can have emergency visas issued for all of you and delivered by special messenger to your hotel within the hour. You are welcome to stay at my house if you wish. Can we expect you as well, Professor Hawkins?"

"Yes, yes, of course. I will have to speak with Rebecca first, and she and I must be in Boston next week, but this requires our urgent attention."

"Contact me again when you've made the arrangements, and I will see to it that you are met at the airport. I… Yugi, I'm very sorry."

"Thank you, Ishizu." There was a dial tone as Ishizu disconnected. Téa leaned forward and clicked off the speakerphone and the room was silent once more.

"I need to go speak to Rebecca," the professor said after a moment. "Shall we meet back here in the suite?"

Yugi nodded. "Tell her… tell her I'm sorry I missed her duel."

"She'll understand, Yugi." The professor looked at him a moment as if he wasn't sure what else to say, then he left the suite.

Kaiba rose from his seat once more. "You losers do what you want, but I have another duel in less than an hour." He then swept from the room without another word.

Joey's fists were shaking as he tried to control his anger. "I swear, one of these days I'm gonna knock that rich bastard on his ass."

"He does have a point, though." Téa said, sounding reluctant to admit it. "Pegasus is going to have a cow if you withdraw from the tournament, Yugi. This was a big deal for Industrial Illusions."

Yugi gave a weary shake of his head. "He didn't just hire us to promote Duel Monsters. He hired us to go after Ramesses. Something this… this…" he swallowed. "It's more significant than just a distraction from the tournament. The eight of us splitting up, four of us here, four of us in Egypt, makes sense. Strategically, I mean."

Joey closed his eyes at the rawness in Yugi's voice and the awkward clunky way he kept slipping between the Pharaoh's demeanor and his own.

Yugi continued. "I'll talk to Pegasus. You guys go find the others and tell them— Just tell them."

Joey opened his eyes again. "Yeah. Yeah, Yuge."

Téa took Yugi's hand again and squeezed. "You and I will both tell Pegasus. This is my job, after all."

Yugi jerked his head up and down in a rough approximation of a nod, and Joey and Tristan each put their hands on his shoulder as the four of them bowed their heads together before dispersing to their separate tasks.

* * *

"You sure you're gonna be okay?"

"Am _I_ gonna be okay?" Mai pulled back from Joey with an incredulous look. "I'm not the one who—" She stopped, not wanting to think about the images finishing that sentence would bring to mind.

"Valon, I mean," Joey said. "We never got a chance to talk with him, and I don't feel right leaving you here with him around."

"I'm a big girl, Wheeler." She put her hands on her hips. "And Yugi needs you."

"I know he does. I just—"

"Go to Egypt."

He nodded, stroking her cheek with his finger. "I'm sorry we won't be together on New Year's Eve."

She gave him what she hoped came off as a mischievous grin, though right now it felt plastic on her face. "Guess I'll have to find some other guy to kiss when the clock strikes twelve."

"Better make sure it's someone you hate, then, 'cause I'm gonna have to kill him." His voice sounded hollow.

He kissed her and she pressed against him, losing herself in him for a moment before he pulled back and looked at her. "I'll miss you."

"Yeah, me too."

"I'll call when we get to Egypt. Kick some ass in the tournament, 'kay? Especially Kaiba's."

"You know it."

"Mai? I…" He gave her an odd look.

"What?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I just… I got a bad feeling about leaving you."

"Don't be stupid. This whole thing is creepy, Joey. That's why you're spooked."

He shuddered. "Yeah, you're probably right. _So_ not looking forward to this."

"I know. But I've got another duel to get ready for, and you'd better pack."

"Yeah. Okay then." He kissed her again. "I'll call you."

"Yeah."

Reluctantly, he turned and left, heading back toward the exit of the convention center toward the hotel. She stood a moment, watching him until he disappeared into the crowd, crossing her arms in front of her, trying to quell her unease.

* * *

"So it's probably nothing serious, but he's in no shape to finish the tournament." Tristan shifted his weight from one foot to the other, uncomfortable with telling Paige half-truths. "He's gonna go stay with some friends, and me and Joey and Téa are gonna go with him."

"Oh man, that really sucks. Is he okay?"

"Yeah, I…" Tristan scratched the back of his head, trying not to think about Atem and what had been done to him. "It'll be okay. We'll _make_ it okay."

"I was really looking forward to seeing him duel. And…" she paused and looked down, and he thought she seemed embarrassed. "I was hoping to get to know you a little better, Tristan."

His eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah. If I give you my e-mail address, will you e-mail me? I'd kinda like to keep in touch."

He smiled. "Yeah, Paige. Yeah, I'd like that."

* * *

"But Grandpa, I wanna go with you! Yugi should have _all_ his friends with him!" Rebecca folded her arms in front of her.

"Rebecca, you have a responsibility here. It'll be hard enough to convince Mr. Pegasus to let Yugi and Joey withdraw from the tournament. You and Mai need to stay and finish."

"But—"

"No buts, young lady. I know you care about Yugi a great deal, but not all of you can go, and Yugi needs his friends who knew the Pharaoh best. I know deep down you understand this. I'll call you every night, and I'll be back here when the tournament ends so we can go to Boston."

She frowned. "We could always just skip Boston…"

"No, we can't. Your grandparents are anxious to see you, Rebecca.

She looked down at the floor. "I'd rather go to Egypt."

"Come on, Becks," Duke said, attempting to be bracing. "With Yugi and Joey out of the tournament, they're gonna need you to kick some butt for Industrial Illusions, 'kay?" He gave her a look that said what his words left out, that their job here was more than just dueling.

"Yeah, I guess."

"You'll look out for her, then?" her grandfather asked Duke. Rebecca rolled her eyes.

Duke put his hand on Rebecca's shoulder, all protective big brother. "You got it, Professor."

Rebecca scowled. "I can take care of myself."

Her grandfather gave her one of those odd wistful smiles. "I know you can, Rebecca."


	15. Having to Choose

**15. Having to Choose**

After some initial resistance from Pegasus, Yugi and Téa had finally convinced him of the necessity of the trip to Luxor. He wasn't willing to go so far as to fly them there on one of Industrial Illusions' planes, however, so Téa managed to get them onto a one o'clock flight that changed planes in Brussels and would arrive in Luxor at ten that night. She'd lucked out and gotten five seats together on the short flight to Brussels, but the nearly five-hour flight from Brussels to Luxor was very full, and she was only able to book two seats together with the other three scattered around the plane. Yugi had been lost in his own world from the moment they left the hotel, so when they arrived in Brussels, he tried to get Joey and Tristan to take the two seats together. That didn't go over well with the others, and they all agreed that he and Téa should sit together so that he would have someone to talk to.

An hour into the flight, however, Téa was beginning to think it had all been in vain. He hadn't spoken a single word since they got on the plane. Sandwiched between him and an Egyptian man who spoke only Arabic, she thought she'd be stuck in a silent void for the entire flight, and if that happened, if she didn't _talk_ to him, then she would have to _think_ about what had happened to Atem, and she couldn't stand to think about it, so she kept trying to talk to keep the thoughts at bay. But Yugi rebuffed every attempt at conversation, just staring out the window at the clouds below them instead. It was eerily reminiscent of the aborted train trip they'd taken in California after the Pharaoh had lost Yugi's soul to the Orichalcos, which made her even more uncomfortable. Even more than three years later, she didn't like to think about those dark days when the Pharaoh had existed as if only a mere shell without Yugi to make him whole.

And now it was Yugi who was the shell.

Giving up on circuitous attempts at cheering him up and figuring they had privacy enough since their seatmate didn't speak English, she finally decided to be direct. "Yugi, don't shut us out. We're here to help."

"I know. I just need to sort through everything." The hollowness to his voice nearly broke her heart, but she was bolstered by the fact that he at least answered her this time, even though he still wouldn't look away from the window.

"We all need to," she said. "You're not the only one connected to him, don't forget."

Now he did look at her, rolling his head toward her with an incredulous stare.

She sighed in concession. "Okay, I know it's not the same. I'm not saying I can even come close to understanding what it's like for you to have the kind of bond you have with him. But we—all of us—we all loved him. We all want to help."

"Téa, he needs _me_. They… they _ripped_ him away from where he belongs and I _felt_ it. If was that bad for _me_…." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "It was one thing to send him away to where he _belonged._ I could live with that, but this? I can't leave it like this."

"Of course not. And we won't."

"But do you understand what that means?"

He'd opened his eyes again, and when she saw the conflict and raw pain there, she realized that she didn't understand and it unsettled her.

He threw his head back against the seat, frustrated. "I've been racking my brains for the last few hours trying to think of one story, one piece of Egyptian mythology I've heard where a person's spirit can exist in the afterlife if the heart and body have been destroyed, and I can't think of a single one. The _Akh_, the body, the heart—they're too intertwined."

"Yugi, I hardly think the kind of stuff you've been learning in history books and on archaeological digs is gonna have the answers you need. Ishizu will know."

"I hope so, because I _will_ get him out of the Shadow Realm."

There was a vehemence to his vow that startled her. "I know you will."

"I mean, it Téa. Even if—" He stopped abruptly. "If he can't exist in the spirit world, then I'll find a way to bring him back _here_, even if I have to dig through those temple ruins myself and find the Millennium Puzzle. Whatever it takes. Nothing else matters."

Her eyes widened. "Bring him back? _Here_? Is that even possible?"

"I don't know. And there's a million different problems with that anyway, not the least of which is all the dark magic we're talking about bringing back with him and the Millennium Items."

Téa closed her eyes. "Which is exactly what Ramesses wants."

"To open up the Shadow Realm and keep it open." Yugi shifted in his seat beside her. "That may be why he did this, to force us to open Pandora's box for him."

She considered this a moment, opening her eyes to regard him. He looked so pale, so lost, and yet… resolute. She put her hand on his arm, equally resolute. "Atem doesn't belong in the Shadow Realm, Yugi. If that's what it takes…." She let the promise remain unspoken.

He looked down at his hands folded together in his lap and was silent for a long moment. When he did speak, his voice was so low she had to lean closer to hear him. "You once told me I always do the right thing, no matter what it costs me. Risking all that darkness to save one soul… that can't be the right thing. I know it's selfish. But that's what I have to do, if it comes to that. For him."

Téa squeezed his arm. "Leaving him in the Shadow Realm can't be the right thing either, Yugi, and you don't have a single selfish molecule in your body."

He looked at her, studying her a moment with an expression she couldn't quite read but which somehow made her feel nervous. "I… I'm a lot more selfish than you think, Téa. The Shadow Realm isn't the only problem. It's _me_."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember Christmas Eve I told you I'll always wish I hadn't had to send him back? Well, that isn't entirely true. There are times…." He sighed. "When we were shipwrecked last May and we thought maybe the Millennium Items were back, that maybe _he_ might be back… I… I sorta didn't really want him to come back. I… you… and me… we had just gotten together and I didn't know what would happen to us if he came back. I just wanted to be with you. But then when we found the Millennium Puzzle, and it turned out to be a fake…." Another sigh escaped him. "I was as much disappointed as I was relieved. I didn't know what to feel. I still don't know what to feel."

"Yugi…." But she wasn't sure what else to say.

His shoulders slumped as if he were carrying a huge weight. "It's like… every day I fight the Ceremonial Battle all over again, and I don't know if I want to win or if I want to lose. I don't know if I want him to be here, to be a part of me in whatever way that means, or if I want him completely gone. Because he complicates things. With us. And if… if he actually comes _back_? It will change everything."

She shook her head and took his hand in hers, intertwining their fingers. "Yugi, no. I love you. Nothing can ever change that. However we have to fix this for him, we'll do it, and then the two of us, we'll find a way to deal with what that means."

He looked at her again, his eyes still full of that look that scared her. "That's just the thing, Téa. It's never been just the two of us. It's always been the _three_ of us. And three's not the right number. It doesn't _work_."

A sour knot settled in her stomach. "Yugi, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that we've done a good job of pretending that it's just two of us, and maybe we could keep pretending forever if things stayed the way they are. But if… if I have to bring him back to save him from the Shadow Realm, we won't be able to pretend any more."

"Yugi—"

"No, let me finish. When I woke up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, I knew something was wrong. Something with the other me. I felt, like, this hole in my stomach. I thought it was just because I felt bad about forgetting him on the anniversary of his… leaving. But I don't think that was it. I think it was that missing canopic jar. Ramesses got it first, before he did the rest of the tomb, and that's what I was feeling."

Téa frowned at him, confused. "Okay, but what does that have to do with us?"

"Everything! Because along with the feeling that something was wrong, I kept getting this sense of having to _choose_, and I didn't know what that meant, but now I do. I thought maybe it was just me being insecure like I always am, feeling like I have to fight with him over you—"

"But he _is_ you! I mean, not exactly, but still, you have got to stop doing this to yourself, Yugi! You're talking about fighting with _yourself_!"

"But that's just it! _Because_ of that, _because_ he's the other me, it's not as simple as me just being insecure. It's not like Duke and Tristan fighting over Serenity. It's all… it all bleeds together like a watercolor painting that didn't dry right. Him, me, you. I can't figure out how he fits, not just because of how you feel about him, but because of how _I_ feel about him. So it isn't just whether you love him or me, sometimes it's the other way around and _I'm_ the one who is forced to choose."

He let out a huge breath of air, agitated. "But he was gone and we were left behind, so I could pretend it didn't matter. And then with everything that happened on the island, I thought I knew what I would choose. I thought I'd choose you. I thought… I thought that if it came to it, that I wanted to be with you more than I wanted him back. And back then, I did, because he was where he was supposed to be, and I'd had two years to learn to live with that. But now? No matter how complicated everything would be, I have to choose him this time. If… if he can't exist in the spirit world, then I have to find a way to bring him back here. Even if it screws things up with us."

"Yugi—"

"Don't." His voice was a hoarse whisper. "I love you, I do. You know that. I've always loved you. But I can't leave him in the Shadow Realm. I just can't, no matter what the cost." He leaned forward in his seat and buried his face in his hands, sobbing. "I can't. He means too much to me."

She sat stunned for a moment, trying to absorb everything he was saying. The Egyptian next to her leaned forward, curious, and she gave him a hard glare before turning back to Yugi. With a slow and careful movement, she pushed up the armrest between their seats, then reached around his shoulders and pulled him toward her until he was in her arms, weeping against her chest.


	16. Return to Egypt

**16. Return to Egypt**

It was late and Téa was tired by the time they finally made their way through customs at Luxor Airport, dragging their luggage behind them, but Yugi seemed a little more himself after their talk on the plane, so she was grateful for that at least. He still looked weary and a little stooped with grief, but he was talking to them now, and when a familiar British accent called out his name, he actually smiled and called back in a tone of voice approaching normal. "Bakura!"

Ryou Bakura looked exactly as Téa remembered him from high school. His thick mane of white hair was shorter than it used to be, but still past his shoulders, flowing around his porcelain face. He almost looked albino but for his large, deep brown eyes, which warmed as he smiled and greeted them. "Hello, everyone." His voice was soft-spoken and gentle, and it was hard for Téa to reconcile this polite, unassuming man with the vengeful psychopath that had once been their most dangerous enemy. Like Yugi, Bakura had once played host to his own ancient spirit, only one significantly more malevolent than Atem.

Joey waved. "Bakura! Long time no see!"

"Yeah, dude, I totally forgot you lived here!" Tristan said.

Bakura met them with handclasps for the guys, a handshake for Professor Hawkins, and a hug for Téa. "It's good to see you all. It's been far too long."

"I trust you all had a good flight." The serene voice came from behind Bakura and, for the first time, Téa noticed that Ishizu Ishtar was there as well, imposing and regal despite her modest height and the fact that she was only twenty-four years old. Her copper skin, turquoise eyes, and sleek black hair gave her an exotic air even here in her native country.

To Ishizu's right stood her older brother Odion. Originally a servant adopted by the Ishtar family, Odion was tall and fierce-looking with mocha skin, dark green eyes, and a series of hieroglyphics tattooed down the left side of his face. He was completely bald except for a single ponytail that hung at his back. There was another woman on Odion's right whom Téa had never met before, but was most likely Odion's wife. Yugi had told them Odion had married the Ishtars' housekeeper about two years earlier. She was petite and had Odion's coloring, with black hair braided and coiled into something that almost looked like a garland.

Yugi inclined his head to Ishizu in a slight bow. "Yes, our flight was fine. Thank you." Something about her seemed to bring out the most formal of language and manners in others.

"I'm glad." She looked past Yugi to the rest of them. "I don't believe any of you other than Yugi and Professor Hawkins have had the pleasure of meeting my sister-in-law, Rashida." She nodded toward the woman beside Odion, introducing Joey, Tristan, and Téa in turn. Rashida smiled pleasantly in greeting while Odion took Téa's and Professor Hawkins' bags.

"Hey, wait a second." Joey frowned and looked around. "Where's Marik?"

Téa saw Bakura stiffen slightly, but Ishizu smiled in a way that almost looked too smooth and well-practiced. "My younger brother is in Greece on business for the museum, although he seems to have turned it into a holiday for his birthday as well. We called him after I spoke to you, and he will be flying in tomorrow morning."

Yugi give Bakura an odd questioning look, but Bakura shook his head almost imperceptibly and said under his breath, "Not here. In the car."

Téa frowned, curious, as Bakura left Yugi's side and fell into step beside Ishizu, who lightly took his arm as if she were his date to a ball. This struck Téa as peculiar in that she found it difficult to imagine Ishizu as anyone's date, let alone Bakura's. She didn't know for certain, but she had always suspected he was gay. Completing the odd picture was Odion, hovering close behind them in a way that made her think of a much milder version of how Joey was with Serenity whenever a boy got within fifty feet of her.

"It's far too late to visit the tombs tonight," Ishizu said over her shoulder as they walked, "so we will be going straight to our house, if that's agreeable to you. Ryou will be staying with us tonight as well." She patted his arm. "We'll go out to the Valley of the Kings in the morning, after we pick up Marik from the airport."

"That's fine." Yugi's voice was stiff, but Téa found she was more than a little relived that they were putting off the trip to the Valley of the Kings. She was dreading actually seeing the tomb.

There were two cars waiting for them outside. Odion, Ishizu, and Rashida led Professor Hawkins to one car, while Bakura brought the rest of them to the other. They loaded their bags into the trunk and then got in, Yugi taking the front seat beside Bakura while Joey, Téa, and Tristan piled into the back. As they settled in, Téa's curiosity was piqued again when she noticed Yugi kept glancing at Bakura as if trying to solve a puzzle.

Bakura must have noticed it too, because once they were away from the airport and on the main road into town, he gave Yugi a sideways look. "You needn't give me the pitiful eyes, Yugi. It's not what you're thinking."

Yugi quickly looked away as if caught peeking at something he shouldn't have been. "I wasn't giving you pitiful eyes."

"Yes, you were, but that's all right. I appreciate your concern."

"Then… everything's fine?"

Téa got the distinct impression he was choosing his words carefully. She shot questioning glances at Joey and Tristan to see if they had any idea what was going on, but they both shrugged.

"Not exactly _fine_, no," Bakura said, "but not what you're thinking. It's just that, well, the police have taken an interest in us, I'm afraid. That's why Marik went to Greece."

Téa felt her jaw drop open in surprise, and Joey and Tristan stared first at each other, then at Bakura.

"Say what?"

"Police?"

Yugi sucked in his breath, looking more alarmed than surprised. "Bakura! But… you're being careful, aren't you?"

"Yes, of course," Bakura said quickly. "But it seems that someone has been informing on us."

"_Informing_… I thought no one outside the family knew!"

"Well, you know Marik." Bakura sighed. "He does have a past, after all. This wouldn't be the first time someone tried to get revenge on him by giving us away."

"Okay, you wanna fill the rest of us in here?" Joey leaned forward in his seat. "Why would the police be watching you? You… you haven't been messing with anything _dark_, have you?"

Téa saw Bakura's eyes widen in the rearview mirror. "Oh no, no, no. Nothing like that. It's just, well, Egypt _is_ largely a Muslim country."

Joey frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means it's not exactly a hospitable place for Marik and me." Bakura sounded as if that were all the explanation that was necessary, although it clearly didn't help Joey.

Téa, however, had an idea click into her head, and her eyes went round. "Wait a second. Are you saying you… and Marik?"

Tristan's jaw dropped a centimeter as the pieces fell into place for him as well. "Whoa, dude, really?"

Bakura frowned at them in the mirror and then shot a confused, almost accusatory look at Yugi. "They don't know?"

Yugi responded with a testy huff. "I don't know how they would unless you told them."

"They're your best friends! Naturally I assumed—"

"That I'd betray a confidence?"

"But… but… you don't keep secrets from your best friends!"

"I don't keep _my_ secrets from them," Yugi corrected him. "You said not to tell _anyone_."

"I didn't mean—" Bakura shut his mouth, cheeks reddening. "You're right, Yugi. I should've known that you would keep your word completely. I just assumed… and of course, you all are my friends, I didn't intend to keep it from _you_." He glanced at them through the rearview mirror again, then his eyes flicked down. "Oh dear, this is rather awkward. I really thought you all knew."

"Knew _what_?" Joey asked, his voice rising in frustration. "Would someone please tell me what the hell you're talking about?"

Tristan leaned over to Joey. "Dude, Bakura and Marik…"

"Bakura and Marik _what_?"

"We're seeing each other," Bakura said. "We've been together for two years now."

"Together?" Joey tried to process this, his eyes widening as it clicked. "Wait, you mean… you're gay?"

Téa, Tristan, and Yugi all groaned, and Téa's head fell forward, her face landing in the palm of her hand, but Bakura burst out laughing.

"What?" Joey looked around at all of them, defensive. "How was I supposed to know?"

"Think about it," Tristan said. "In all the time we've known Bakura, has he ever once hit on your sister?"

"No, but—"

"Well, there you go." Tristan sat back and folded his arms as if this were conclusive evidence.

Téa glared at the two of them. "You are both idiots. Please ignore them, Bakura."

"No, no, that's quite all right." Bakura was still laughing. "Seeing as my safety and well-being depend on it not being obvious to everyone, I'll consider it a compliment."

Joey stopped sulking and frowned. "Yeah, about that—exactly what kind of trouble would you be in?"

Bakura shrugged, sobering. "Quite a lot, actually. The police could do any number of things if they wanted to. I'm a foreigner, so the best-case scenario would be that they would simply deport me. But Marik… they could jail him indefinitely on charges of lechery or debauchery. Sometimes they use torture or hormone therapy."

Téa gasped, horrified. "Oh Bakura! I had no idea!"

"Dude, that's just wrong!"

"Yeah, Bakura, that totally sucks."

Yugi blew out an impatient breath. "I don't understand why you and Marik don't leave. You could move to Japan or England. Why do you stay here and keep yourself at risk?"

Bakura sighed. "This is Marik's home, Yugi. He loves it here, and so do I." He looked down a moment, and then when he looked back up, Téa could see a wistful look in his eyes through the rearview mirror. "We know that if we stay together, we'll have to leave eventually. We can't make a life here, not long term. But we're still rather young and not quite ready for a permanent commitment, so for now, we want to be here. Eventually… well, I'd actually like to move to San Francisco."

"San Francisco?" Yugi shifted slightly in his seat.

"Yes. We have so many friends there. I don't think I could handle the cold in England again after living in the desert for two years, and Japan…. well, Japan has some rather painful memories. But we haven't decided anything yet."

"So how exactly did the police start watching you?" Tristan asked.

"We're not quite sure. Ishizu's position as Director of the Egyptian Bureau of Archaeology makes her a rather important person in the Egyptian government, and she has many friends in high places. One of them let her know last week that the police had received an anonymous tip about Marik and me. He suggested it might be a good time for one of us to take a trip abroad, and we figured it would best suit our cover story if Marik went away while I stayed behind."

Téa leaned forward a bit, curious. "Cover story?"

Bakura and Yugi exchanged amused looks before Bakura responded. "Yes. We have developed a somewhat elaborate cover story to keep anyone from getting too curious about all the time I spend with the Ishtars. Officially, Ishizu and I are betrothed."

"_Betrothed_?" Joey choked. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm quite serious, actually. It's a rather long story, but I was in need of an excuse for spending time with the Ishtars, and Ishizu was getting pressure to find a husband, so it was mutually beneficial for us to pretend to be courting. Egyptian courtships are quite conservative; men and women aren't allowed to be alone together, but a woman's suitor would spend much time trying to curry the favor of her father. Or, if there is no father, a brother."

"I see." Téa couldn't help but grin at the sly ploy.

"After more than a year of 'courting,' it seemed odd that we were not engaged, so Ishizu made up this story that she was willing to become betrothed to me, but as I'm younger than she is, she would not marry me until I turn twenty-one. It keeps people off her back and gives Marik and me at least until next September to work out if we have a future together or not."

"Dude, that's just twisted." But there was approval in Tristan's voice.

Bakura smiled. "Welcome to Egypt."


	17. Dangerous Liaison

**17. Dangerous Liaison **

_Everything was sand._

_It was everywhere—in her hair, her eyes, her mouth, her clothes. It rained down on her from above, and she couldn't escape it. Reaching out, her hands could only feel more sand and then the solid wall of her hourglass prison. She pressed against the glass, trying to keep her face close to it to shield her from the sand._

_Outside her prison, below her, was more sand. But this was inviting sand—a golden beach beside a turquoise sea. Her friends were there, clad in bright bathing suits, enjoying the water. Tristan and Duke were horsing around with a snorkel and an inner tube. Yugi and Téa were swimming, splashing each other playfully._

_"Yugi! Téa! Help me! I'm trapped!" She pounded on the glass, but they ignored her. Téa waved as two more figures ran down the beach, holding hands. It was Joey and Serenity, and they laughed as they dove into the water._

_"JOEY!" She pounded harder. "JOEY, I'M IN HERE! HELP ME, I'M TRAPPED!"_

_Joey looked up then, and she was sure he saw her. He gave her an odd look and shrugged. "I got a bad feeling about leaving you."_

_"Then DON'T! Don't leave me!"_

_"It's too late. I already lost the duel."_

_She realized then that she was no longer in the hourglass, but in a vacant lot in San Francisco in the dead of night._

_Joey collapsed into her arms. "That was one of the greatest duels I ever fought. Thanks Mai." And then a glowing green circle contracted around them, knocking her aside and flaring into a single beam of light on Joey's chest. He convulsed as the light pulled his soul from him, and then the light was gone._

_"JOEY!" She scrambled to him and cradled him in her arms. "This is all my fault! All my fault! Joey!"_

Mai's eyes flew open, and she immediately rolled onto her side, shaking uncontrollably. She reached into the space beside her, gritting her teeth when she found it empty. Clutching herself tightly, she willed her breathing to slow down and for the trembling to stop. After a moment, she was stable enough to pull herself up on her hands and knees, and then another moment more and she could sit up, kneeling in her bed. It took her a few seconds to remember where she was—her hotel room in London. It was still dark outside, but in the faint glow from the bathroom light left on behind her, she could see the outline of Rebecca Hawkins sleeping in the next bed. Rebecca groaned and rolled over, restless, but oblivious to Mai's nightmare.

Nightmare.

Damn.

The last time she'd had this nightmare had been when they were shipwrecked and Evan Haines had kept exposing her to Orichalcos stones. The nightmares hadn't been as bad when Joey was with her, and they'd stopped altogether as soon as they'd discovered what was causing them. And now, here, at another tournament, she was having the same nightmare again. And Joey… was gone, she remembered. To Egypt.

But someone with a connection to the Orichalcos _was_ here.

Growling at the back of her throat, she slipped out of bed and grabbed the nearest clothes she could find, glancing at the clock. Not quite five. Dressing quickly and running a quick comb through her hair, she quietly left the room and headed for the lobby.

It took very little flirting with the desk clerk to get a room number, and within ten minutes of waking up, she was knocking on the door of another room.

"Yeah, hang on," came a sleepy voice from inside, and then the door opened and Valon looked out. His hair was sticking up at even weirder angles than usual, and his eyes drooped with sleep, but when he saw her they widened in surprise. "Mai?"

She put on her best smile and shoved the door open, pushing him back into the room a step. "Hello, Valon." She drawled his name, putting all the sultriness she could into it as she stepped into the room.

"Uh… so to what do I owe this pleasure?" A half suspicious, half amused smile played on his lips. "Feeling lonely after Wheeler backed out of the tourney?"

"Something like that." She pushed him on the middle of his chest with the heel of her hand so that he stumbled backwards. "I thought we should have a little chat."

"Did you now?"

Another push from her had him stumbling backwards onto his bed. She climbed on top of him, straddling his legs, and leaning forward with a lascivious grin, slipped her hands down his body, feeling for any stones he might have on his person. His eyes widened in surprise at the intrusion, and he smirked up at her. "You always this feisty when your boyfriend's away?"

"That depends." She pinned his shoulders down with her hands and leaned in very close to him, her hair making a curtain around their faces, as she put a seductive growl into her voice. "Tell me about the Orichalcos stones, Valon."

He scowled and tried to push her away, propping himself up on his elbows. "I already told you, I haven't been anywhere near an Orichalcos stone since I smashed my ring and tore up my Seal card after we left California."

She slammed him back down against the bed, not letting him go. "Sorry, hon, but I'm not buying it. Ever since you showed up in that pub last night, a lot of strange things have been happening, and I don't like coincidences."

"Too bad," he said, making another attempt to push her away, but she was fairly strong and had the advantage because she was on top of him.

"Let's try this again, Valon. Does the name Ramesses ring a bell?"

"Can't say that it does. Now as flattering as all this attention is, either let's have a go or kindly fuck off."

"You won't mind if I take a little look around your room then, just to see what kind of shiny trinkets you might be keeping around?" She smiled sweetly.

He glowered at her, then with a mighty heave managed to flip her over so that she was on her back and he was the one straddling her, pinning her wrists down. "You need a new bit, love. This one's getting old. I'm gonna tell you one last time." He leaned over her until his face was very close to hers just as she had done to him. "I. Don't. Know. What. The bloody. Hell. You're. Talking. About. Got it?"

She felt her temper rise as she glared up at him, but her voice was pure ice. "I told you, Valon, you will _not_ mess with me. My life is good now, really good for the first time since… the first time _ever_, actually, and if you think I'll let you or anyone else screw with that—"

"Oh yeah, your life is so great, you've became a raving psychotic bitch! _You_ barge in here and jump _me_ and start ranting like a lunatic about Orichalcos stones, but _I'm_ the one messing with _you_? You are completely off your nut, you know that?"

"Then you won't mind—" she began, then in one sudden jerk brought her knees up to his chest and pushed, knocking him back off of her with enough force that he tumbled to the floor. As soon as his weight was off of her, she rolled sideways to land on the floor and then jumped nimbly to her feet, finishing her sentence as if there had been no interruption, "—letting me take a look around your room."

He didn't even bother getting up off the floor; he just looked up at her shaking his head. "You know what? Have at it. Tear the whole bloody place apart if you want."

She took him at his word, starting with his luggage, which she dumped out and pawed through as he got up from the floor and sat down in a chair by the window to watch her. She searched every pocket in the suitcase, and then tore out the lining.

"You gonna pay for that, love?" Valon asked conversationally.

Ignoring him, she felt for hidden compartments, and when she found nothing, began a methodic search of the room. She pulled open drawers and went through the closets, pulled the covers off of the bed, and went through every last corner of the room.

"Mind if I have a smoke?" When she didn't answer, he lit a cigarette from a pack on the table beside him.

It took her about half an hour to search the entire room and all his luggage and clothes, and she came up with nothing. No Orichalcos stones. No cards that weren't sanctioned for tournament play. Nothing remotely occult. She even took apart his Duel Disk and found nothing unusual.

Frustrated, she sat down on his stripped bed and glared at him. "I know you're involved in this, Valon. It's too big a coincidence for everything to start happening again the second you show up. The attack on Yugi, my nightmare—" She snapped her mouth shut, but it was too late.

He narrowed his eyes and looked at her through the smoke from his cigarette. "You having nightmares again?"

"Oh please, like you didn't plan it that way."

His jaw dropped. _"Plan_ it? Jesus, Mai, I… even if I had a clue what you're on about, I would never… oh fuck it, you'll think what you want anyway."

"I know it's because of the Orichalcos, and I am _so _not going back there!"

"Well, I know bugger all about the Orichalcos, all right? You think you're the only one who doesn't wanna go back there? It wasn't exactly my best moment, either. I'm just trying to get on with my life, same as you. I came here to duel, to get back into the game, because before Dartz came and screwed us all over, it was actually _fun_. And yeah, okay, I was hoping to see you, but if you're with Wheeler now and you're happy, then fine, I can live with that. But I gotta wonder how happy you really are when he suddenly pulls out and disappears, and you come in like a madwoman, raving about Orichalcos stones and having nightmares again."

"You leave Joey out of this! His not being here has nothing to do with me and everything to do with Ramesses going after the Shadow Realm again."

"Am I supposed to actually understand any of that?"

She regarded him a moment, trying to determine if he was on the level. "You're telling me you really don't know what's been going on the last few months? You haven't talked to Rafael or anyone?"

"Rafael?" He snorted in disdain. "I haven't talked to any of those blokes since we left California, right? I wanna_ put that all behind me_."

"Yeah, well _someone's_ doing their damnedest to make sure no one can put it behind us. You must've heard about Duel at Sea."

"A tournament last May, right? On a ship, and some whacker who worked for the cruise line sank it. You were there, yeah?"

She nodded. "The official version is missing a few key details. The guy who sank the ship was working for someone who calls himself Ramesses."

"Ramesses? Isn't that the name of some ancient pharaoh?" He rolled his eyes. "The Egyptian theme is getting old. Who is he?"

"We don't know. But he has access to Orichalcos stones. Lots of them. We asked Rafael about it, but he said any one of Dartz's people in Paradias could've hoarded stones and information, and that all of Dartz's records disappeared when Dartz did. But this guy, whoever he is, he'd basically stashed a whole mine of Orichalcos stones on the island where we were shipwrecked. He tried to use them on me and Joey and Yugi and the rest of that gang to re-open the Shadow Realm."

"Which is?"

She sighed. "Right. You weren't a part of all that. It's…well, I guess it's the Egyptian equivalent of hell. A little like the Seal of Orichalcos on a really bad acid trip. It's what started my nightmares in the first place. Evan—the guy who was working for Ramesses and blew up the ship—he used the Orichalcos stones to mess with all of us. They made my nightmares start up again, and they make us all dark and… well, _dark_. Like in California, only multiplied. We beat Evan, but Ramesses is still out there. We're trying to find him and stop him from messing with the Shadow Realm again."

"And you think I'm working for this guy?"

She shrugged. "It's a little coincidental that we haven't heard a peep from him since we were rescued, and now at the next big tournament you show up, I start having nightmares again, and the whole thing with the Pharaoh's—" She stopped short, again berating herself for saying too much.

"What about the Pharaoh? Is this Ramesses guy the one that made Yugi sick?"

Mai shook her head, realizing that Valon didn't know the Pharaoh wasn't with Yugi anymore, at least not as a separate spirit. "I… we don't know."

"Mai, I swear, I have nothing to do with this. I got no grudges with you or Yugi or even Wheeler, yeah? I just wanna get on with my life. And I _don't_ want you to have those nightmares. I never did. When… when I got you to join Paradias, I really thought it would _help_. I get now how messed up that was, but that's really all I wanted."

She ran her hand through her hair, pulling it away from her scalp. "Well, _someone_ wants me to have those nightmares again. They don't come out of thin air—they're always _caused_ by something. Or someone. And I don't wanna go back there, Valon. I _won't_ go back there."

He just nodded, then snuffed out his cigarette stub in the ashtray on the table beside him. "I'm with you there, really. And… I'd like us to be friends, Mai."

She looked down, letting her hair hide her face. "There're a lot of really bad memories, Valon. Even if they weren't your fault."

"Yeah," he said, a weariness in his voice. "Yeah, I s'pose there are." She looked up and met his gaze for a moment, and then he gave her a wry grin. "Well, at least I get to tell everyone that while her boyfriend was away, Mai Valentine jumped me in my room and we spent an hour tearing the place up."

She crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow at him. "I can make your every waking moment a living breathing hell. And don't think I won't."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure you can. Well then, at least help me clean up?"

"Dream on. That's why God invented maid service."


	18. The Tombs

**18. The Tombs**

Marik Ishtar returned earlier than expected, surprising them by showing up at the house at seven o'clock, waking Joey, Yugi, Tristan, and Bakura, who were all camped out in the study downstairs near the main hall. It was just as well—none of them had slept very well, and Joey had been having some weird, fragmented dream about the Wizard of Oz involving the Wicked Witch of the West cackling at Dorothy about how much time she had left and something about the Emerald City when Marik awakened them.

As flamboyant as his sister was dignified, Marik looked pretty much the same as the last time Joey saw him. About Joey's height, he was lean, muscular, and bronze-skinned, with pale lavender eyes and lavish platinum blond hair that dusted his shoulders. Also the same was the abundance of gold jewelry he wore around his wrists, neck, and dangling from both ears, a look he somehow managed to pull off as a tribute to his Egyptian heritage rather than seeming gangsta rap wanna-be.

His manner, however, was very somber in contrast with his appearance. He clasped Yugi's hand for a moment, offering condolences as if it were a funeral. Yugi accepted the sentiment with a jerky nod; he seemed quiet and withdrawn again and obviously had as restless a night as Joey had, if he'd even slept at all. Marik then greeted the others in turn, and when he shook Joey's hand, Joey felt a twinge of uneasiness, which in itself bothered him. _I'm not a homophobe_, he berated himself, but when Marik and Bakura greeted each other first with an embrace and then a kiss that was not quite lingering but more than just a peck, he had to admit to himself that seeing them as a couple was going to take some getting used to.

"I'm glad you're back," Bakura said quietly. "We weren't expecting you until nine." When Marik only gave a brief nod, Bakura frowned. "Is everything all right?"

"First the police, and now this." Marik shook his head. "I assume Big Sister is awake? She never sleeps past six. I'm sure she'll be wanting to go out to the tombs first thing. That's why I took an earlier flight."

Joey felt his stomach drop to his knees at the word _tombs_. He hadn't hesitated to volunteer to come out here to support Yugi, of course, but the closer they got to actually seeing the tombs, the more nervous he was.

"I'm sure she is," Bakura said, "but I haven't seen her yet. You should go knock on her door. Téa's in there as well, so you can check on them both. And Professor Hawkins is in your room."

Marik disappeared upstairs and returned a short while later with Ishizu, Téa, Odion and Rashida in tow. Rashida and Bakura worked together to prepare a quick breakfast, and Professor Hawkins joined them just as they were laying it out on the table. They all ate in uncomfortable silence, no one really looking forward to the business of the day, least of all Joey, who was absolutely terrified of tombs and graveyards under the best of circumstances—if there could be a best of circumstances that involved tombs and graveyards, that is.

When they'd finished breakfast, Ishizu nodded to them. "If you're ready, then, we should go to the tombs."

* * *

Yugi hadn't been ready for what he'd seen in the tomb.

He was on his third cup of tea, staring out the French doors of Ishizu's well-appointed office in the Luxor Museum. The doors opened into a beautiful garden with a footpath that meandered through acacia trees and jasmine and mandrakes and other native Egyptian plants he couldn't name. A fountain gurgled peacefully in the cool December sunshine, and Yugi watched it, trying to make his mind focus on that, on the taste of the tea, on anything but the images of the tomb burned into his mind.

The tomb. The desecration of the tomb itself had been bad enough, particularly in the middle chambers where all the traps had once been—the darts that shot from a stone snake's mouth, the walls with the spikes that would close in on trespassers, the statutes that moved—all smashed, and the walls smeared with something he hadn't been able to identify. Though he had spent six months last year on an archaeological excursion throughout Egypt and had seen many tombs in various states of destruction and desecration, this felt more personal—both to Yugi and to Atem.

He remembered his grandfather telling him how he had found this tomb decades ago, and how he had figured out how to navigate the traps safely to find the golden box that contained the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi remembered going to the tomb himself—or at least to the Pharaoh's memory of the tomb—with his friends in their quest to find his other self's real name. The destruction in the tomb was worse on the stone bridge walkway and the dais where his grandfather had first found the Millennium Puzzle decades ago. Like the statues, the stone slabs, each carved with a different Duel Monster, had also been smashed. The place where his grandfather had found the Millennium Puzzle, the place where decades before he was even born the Puzzle had almost come full circle, from Atem to his successor, Seto, to Yugi's grandfather, and then later to him. Gone.

But none of that could compare to what they found in the burial chamber. There were the shattered canopic jars that had once held his other self's… once held _the_ internal organs—Yugi couldn't quite reconcile any of this with _him_, with the living spirit he loved and had shared his life with for nearly three years. There was the stone sarcophagus inside the crypt that looked as if it had been somehow blown apart in a huge explosion. There were the splintered remnants of the inner wooden coffin that appeared to have been hacked apart with an ax. And of course the far more gruesome remains—

Yugi squeezed his eyes shut and gripped his teacup, trying to block out the images of the crypt.

"The damage was quite extensive," Professor Hawkins said from his seat beside Ishizu's desk, his voice cutting through Yugi's consciousness, precise and analytical, and for some reason this helped stabilized him. He opened his eyes and looked away from the window towards the large desk behind which Ishizu was seated while the professor continued. "I expected the artifacts to be damaged, but the very stones? How on earth did they accomplish it?"

"We're not sure," Ishizu said. "The government officials are dumbfounded. They say only explosives could have done this, but there are no traces of anything incendiary. Obviously I suspect a more… supernatural cause."

The professor nodded. "Yes, yes, I believe you're right."

Behind Yugi, Joey was pacing back and forth across the office like a skittish terrier. Tristan was sitting in an armchair, his normally ramrod-straight shoulders hunched forward as he rubbed his forehead, nursing a headache. Téa was curled into the corner of the leather sofa beside Yugi, her face buried in her hands.

In contrast, Marik and Bakura sat calmly across from them on another sofa, a respectable distance between them, Marik's fingers drumming absently on the sofa's arm. Odion stood impassively against a wall behind Ishizu and Professor Hawkins, while Rashida bustled around getting more tea and biscuits and anything else she could do to try to make them more at ease.

Although everyone who had gone into the tomb had been revolted, it was Yugi, Téa, Joey, and Tristan who had been the most affected by what they had seen. Téa had run out of the burial chamber, and Joey had retched, barely keeping himself from throwing up. Yugi knew without talking about it with them that they all had felt what he had, that no matter how unreal it was, how impossible it was to imagine _that_ having anything to do with _him_, his absence had somehow paradoxically been palpable, like the lack of his spirit was a spirit unto itself, a demon that was eating away at them. It wasn't like before, when he'd felt his other self separate from him to enter the Memory World, or when they'd separated into two physical beings for their final battle, the Ceremonial Battle. It wasn't even like when he'd gone for good into the afterlife. He was gone and he'd left a void, but it was a _natural_ void, not like this pressing, pounding, constricting black hole they felt in his tomb, so _nothing_ that it was _something_.

"And Seto's tomb was the same?" The professor asked.

Ishizu gave a clipped nod. "Yes, almost exactly." Atem's tomb had been so disturbing, they hadn't bothered to go into Seto's as well, although Ishizu, Odion, and Bakura had seen it the day before, when the vandalism had first been discovered. "You may have noticed that the destruction wasn't random. It was quite ritualistic."

"Yes. Wouldn't you agree, Yugi?" The professor tried to draw Yugi into the conversation.

Yugi looked at his mentor and struggled to switch his mind into scholarly objectivity, but it wouldn't go. "I—"

A knock on the door cut him off, and Ishizu's secretary poked his head in. "I'm sorry to interrupt, Ms. Ishtar, but Professor Julius and Miss Drake are here."

"Yes, send them in," Ishizu said.

The secretary ducked out, and a tall, tanned man in his late fifties with small dark brown eyes, black hair with only the slightest tinge of gray above his ears, and a whisper-thin black mustache strode into the room. Yugi recognized him immediately as Professor Julius, one of the archaeologists who had toured the Egyptian desert for six months with him and Professor Hawkins. Behind Professor Julius was a slender girl in her early twenties, about Téa's height, with hair so white it almost looked blue in the sunlight streaming in through the French doors. It was parted at the side and swept back away from her face, tied up in a loose knot at the back of her head, but several strands had gotten loose and hung in her face. Her skin was also white, paler than Bakura's, even, but her eyes were such a startling shade of blue that Yugi wondered if she was wearing colored contacts. She looked tired and drawn, and… Yugi frowned at her a moment. She also looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

The arrival of the newcomers, however, seemed to help settle the air a bit. Joey stopped pacing, Tristan straightened in his seat, Téa uncurled herself from her near fetal position and smoothed out her skirt, and Yugi felt the gears in his mind start grinding slowly to life again, the grisly images from the tomb forcibly pushed back into the dark recesses.

"So sorry we're late, Ishizu," Professor Julius said in a cultured British accent, then his eyes widened and he smiled as he noticed Professor Hawkins. "Arthur! So good to see you!" He crossed the room and Professor Hawkins rose to great him.

"Raymond." Professor Hawkins smiled in return as the two men shook hands fondly.

Professor Julius stepped back. "Did Ishizu send for you all the way from California?"

"No, no. I was in London. My granddaughter—you remember Rebecca?—she was in a Duel Monsters tournament there, as were Yugi and Joey here." Professor Hawkins nodded toward them and Professor Julius turned, noticing Yugi for the first time.

"Ah, your young protégé."

Yugi got up from the couch to shake his hand. "Good to see you, Professor."

"Last time I saw you, you were half ready to beat an old woman to death to get a cab out of Rameses Station in Cairo."

Yugi winced at the irony of the name of the train station, then forced his face into a close approximation of a smile. "Yeah, I was nearly a week late meeting my friends in the U.S. for another tournament." He glanced at Téa and she gave him a smile that looked as tired and fake as his felt.

"Yes, we did have a devil of a time getting back to Cairo after our travels in the Sahara. I understand you had some excitement at that tournament as well."

"I wouldn't call it 'excitement,' exactly." Yugi shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"But a shipwreck, how frightening that must have been."

"Yes, nasty business." Professor Hawkins stepped in, rescuing Yugi from having to make more small talk. "But then, I hear you had some troubles of your own last spring. Malaria, was it?"

"That." Professor Julius scoffed, brushing it off with a wave of his hand. "The doctors feared the worst because of my travels, but it was nothing more serious than influenza."

"Still, I'm glad you're well again."

"And I'm glad that Yugi and your granddaughter are safe." Professor Julius looked around. "And where is young Rebecca?"

"She's still in London finishing the tournament," Professor Hawkins said. "She and Yugi and several of their friends are employed by Maximillion Pegasus now, and he wasn't willing to let all of them withdraw at once, so she stayed behind. I'll be flying back there as soon as I can to be with her and then we're off to Boston to visit with her other grandparents for the remainder of the winter holiday."

"I see." Professor Julius nodded. "Send her my best wishes when you speak to her." He then turned to the girl behind him, whom Yugi had almost forgotten was in the room. "Allow me to introduce my own protégé, Sara Drake. She's a graduate of the University of Cambridge with a degree in Egyptology and is in her first year working on her masters in Cairo."

"Hello," Sara said with a smile.

Yugi held out his hand to her, trying once more to figure out why she looked familiar. "Hi, I'm—"

"Yugi Mutou," she said enthusiastically, shaking his hand. Her accent was British as well, similar to Professor Julius's. "I'm so thrilled to finally meet you. You're really quite famous, you know."

Yugi flushed a little, but Joey flashed a broad grin and stepped forward. "Obviously another Duel Monsters fan. Then you must've heard of Joey Wheeler—"

"What?" She looked at Joey, confused, then her eyes cleared as she figured out what he meant. "Oh right, that card game. No, no. Professor Julius keeps trying to get me to learn it, says it's fabulous for passing the time on digs, but I don't care for games myself."

Now Joey looked confused, too. "Then how do you know Yugi?"

"From Professor Julius, of course." She turned back to Yugi. "I understand you were actually here in Egypt with Ms. Ishtar when she finally uncovered Seto's, Atem's, and Aknamkanon's names. And a high school student at the time! It must have been the thrill of your life!"

Yugi wasn't sure what to say to that. Ishizu had been given official credit for discovering Atem's name specifically to avoid having to answer awkward questions about how four high school students from Japan could have possibly made such a find. And far from the thrill Sara expected it to be, it had been a very bittersweet and personal moment in his life, the final precursor to the Ceremonial Battle.

Before he had a chance to think of a response, however, she narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing him, then shook her head in amazement. "Professor Julius had told me you resembled the figure carved into that stone tablet in Giza, but I never imagined the likeness would be so strong. Have you seen it?"

Yugi blinked. "Oh, yeah, that. It's the hair." Self-conscious, he brushed back his hair with his hand. "I saw that tablet when I was sixteen and Ishizu brought it to Japan on a world tour. I… I guess that's how I got interested in Egyptology in the first place." It was a true enough statement, in broad strokes anyway. _Very_ broad strokes.

Now Sara looked embarrassed. "How stupid of me, of course you would have seen it. Professor Julius tells me even as an undergraduate, you were quite the expert on that particular dynasty. Well, you'd have to be, wouldn't you, having been here when they were first identified."

"Not really an expert, just… very interested."

"He's being modest, Sara," Professor Julius said. "He is quite knowledgeable about the entire era. I was very impressed on our expedition last year." He turned to Yugi. "Sara is doing her masters dissertation on your pharaohs."

"I, too, find them quite fascinating. I hope I'm not stealing your thunder."

It took a moment to realize what she meant—she assumed he was doing the same masters work. "Oh no, I'm not doing my masters on that era. Well, I don't actually know what I'm doing my thesis on yet, but it won't be that."

She looked surprised. "Really? Professor Julius has talked so much about you and Professor Hawkins and how interested and knowledgeable you are about these three particular pharaohs, and of course you're here now, so naturally I assumed…."

Yugi shrugged, uncomfortable. "It's…. I don't know. It's hard to explain. I couldn't be… dispassionate enough, I guess. They're too close to my heart for the appropriate scholarly objectivity, if that makes sense."

She tilted her head, frowning slightly as she studied him again, and he once more had the strange feeling he'd seen her before.

He didn't have time to ponder it, however; Ishizu was making the rest of the introductions and then motioned for everyone to sit. Sara sat on the sofa next to Bakura, but Professor Julius remained standing, glancing around the room before turning to face Ishizu.

"Well, we have quite a gathering here. Surely not everyone need be present?"

"I assure you, Professor, that everyone here has a vested interest in the matter at hand. You are familiar with the familial duties my brothers and I were charged with in regards to this particular dynasty? We have been Atem's Tomb Keepers for generations."

"And the others?"

"They, too, are students of this era, in a manner of speaking. Like Yugi, they were here when Atem's name was discovered, and when the shrine in Kul Elna collapsed. I assure you, their insight may prove invaluable."

"But they're only students? I understand Yugi's expertise is rather beyond his years, but other students—"

"Yeah, what of it?" Joey jerked his thumb at Sara. "_She's_ a student and you don't have a problem with her being here."

The professor gave Joey an impatient look. "She's the one who discovered the desecrations in the first place."


	19. Aibou

**19. **_**Aibou**_

Yugi turned to look at Sara with surprise. "You're the one who…? I thought the guards discovered the… the vandalism in the middle of the night."

Ishizu gave him a circumspect look. "Sara is the one who alerted Professor Julius and myself. We've… kept it quiet for her safety. I'm sure you can appreciate the need for… discretion in some matters, Yugi." Her expression went from guarded to pointed.

Yugi nodded before turning to Sara. "But what were you doing at the tombs in the middle of the night?"

She looked embarrassed again. "It's rather a long story. I was on winter holiday here in Luxor and, well, I… I suffer from occasional bouts of somnambulism."

Joey took a step back in horror. "You… you _eat_ people?"

Téa reached behind the couch and smacked him on the arm. "Not _cannibalism_, you idiot. _Somnambulism_."

Sara gave Joey a half amused half disturbed look. "It means I sometimes walk in my sleep. Apparently I managed to sleepwalk my way to the Valley of the Kings. I awoke in Seto's tomb a little before four in the morning, most likely just a short while after the robbers had gone."

Yugi wasn't sure what to make of this. Sleepwalking straight to Seto's tomb on the very night it had been vandalized? What were the odds? He shot a glance at Ishizu. Who _was_ this girl?

Ishizu gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head before addressing the entire room. "Now please, we have much to discuss. There's little point in bickering over who should be here. As the Director of the Egyptian Bureau of Archaeology, I am the one to make the decision, and everyone who is in this room can and should be here. So please, Professor Julius, I would like to report on what the police have found."

As it turned out, it wasn't much. The police had no clue who had robbed the tombs or how they had done it. The guards had been knocked unconscious and were recovering in the hospital. Doctors were mystified; there had been no indication of any kind of drugging or physical injury. It was as if they had just fallen asleep on the spot and awakened several hours later. They had all been questioned, but could remember nothing after eleven o'clock that night.

Yugi exchanged glances with Tristan, Téa, and Joey, each of them grim. Joey mouthed, _Reshef_.

Professor Julius stroked his chin. "It's curious that the robbers would focus on Atem and Seto but not Atem's father, Aknamkanon. They all were from the same dynasty, and the treasures from his tomb would be of the same value as the others."

"He wasn't interested in 'treasures,' and we all know it," Tristan said, an unmistakable bitterness in his tone. "This was revenge, pure and simple."

Professor Julius looked at him, curious. "Revenge? Against pharaohs who lived thousands of years ago? For what?"

Tristan didn't flinch under the professor's scrutiny. "Perceived slights against the later pharaohs. We know this is the same person who was responsible for the rash of thefts while you and Yugi and Professor Hawkins were on your expedition, right? The ones on Ramesses the Great's tomb, and… who were the other guys again?"

"Ramesses I, Seti I, and Ramesses III," Téa answered.

"Yeah, those guys. We know the same guy did this."

"Do we?" Professor Julius asked. "I don't see how those earlier robberies are at all similar. They were not nearly as dramatic and violent, and they involved artifacts from different dynasties."

Joey made a sound at the back of his throat. "We know who did it."

Tristan ignored him and responded to the professor. "Exactly my point. There was almost a reverence in the earlier thefts, like the thief was liberating something important to him, but was respectful of the sacredness of the tombs and the artifacts. Here we're talking deliberate violation."

"And your area of study in Egyptology?"

Tristan was unfazed by the question. "I'm not a student of Egyptology. I'm military police. And I've seen what hate crimes look like, and they look a lot like this."

"Hate crimes?" The professor gave him an incredulous look. "The so-called victims were already _dead_. They have been for thousands of years."

"How else would you explain such wanton destruction, Raymond?" Professor Hawkins asked his colleague. "Whatever the intrinsic, historical, or even mystical value of the items that were stolen, obtaining those items would not require the thief or thieves to cause that much damage to the entire tomb. On the contrary, stopping to do such a thing would take an inordinate amount of time and increase the risks of getting caught."

"Not to mention the fact that the bodies were destroyed in a very ritualistic manner guaranteed to be the deepest affront to the ancient Egyptians," Ishizu said. "Whoever did this is very knowledgeable of ancient Egyptian beliefs."

Professor Julius shook his head with a tight smile. "Ah yes, Ms. Ishtar, I'd forgotten how you and my dear friend Arthur love to wax poetic about the magic and myth of the ancient Egyptians."

Professor Hawkins bristled. "It _is_ our field of study."

"Yes, but _studying_ a subject and accepting it as reality are two entirely different things." There was a slight edge of condescension in Professor Julius's reply. "We are scholars, not romantics."

Yugi closed his eyes. For six months he'd heard these same arguments volleyed back and forth on their expedition, Professor Julius forever playing Scully to Professor Hawkins' Mulder. Yugi knew they were quite fond of each other, and he admired both men a great deal, but it still was not an argument he wished to revisit, not with his other self's soul hanging in the balance.

Sara spoke up. "Professor, how would it be possible to describe this crime in any terms other than emotional?" Her mentor looked at her, surprised to find his own student challenging him, but she went on, undaunted. "Whoever did this _cut out their hearts_. They destroyed the bodies exactly the way a rival king would have done to assure that they could not remain in the afterlife. What I—" She swallowed, as if having difficulty getting the words out. "What I saw could not have been done dispassionately by someone who wanted to make a few pounds selling artifacts on the black market. It could only have been done by someone who wanted to send Seto and Atem to hell."

Yugi bit down hard on his lip and clenched his fists. He saw Téa rub her eyes and could feel the seat back behind him shift as Joey dug his fingers into it.

"Sara, I don't disagree with you—"

Yugi had heard enough. "Stop." He said it quietly, but with enough of Atem's command in his voice that everyone did stop. "We aren't focusing on what _matters_. We _know_ who did this, and we need to find him and find out why and stop whatever he wants to do, yes, but we're asking all the wrong questions right now. We already know he wanted to send them to hell. The question is, _how do we get them back_?"

The room went deadly still. "Yugi," Téa said softly, but he didn't look at her, instead keeping his focus on Ishizu, the only person in the room who would be able to answer his question.

Ishizu gazed back at him, her eyes soft and sad but not wavering. "We don't, Yugi."

Yugi shook his head and found himself suddenly on his feet. "No. No. I can't accept that, Ishizu. I can't."

"Yugi," she said softly, her expression full of compassion, but dammit, he didn't want compassion, he wanted _answers_. She had none to offer, however. "You are a student of Egyptology. I know you understand what you saw. The bodies are gone. The hearts are gone. Without them, the _Akh_ has nothing to anchor it. It cannot exist in the afterlife. Soon it will not be able to exist at all."

"Then we bring him back _here_." It was not a suggestion. It was a _necessity_. It had to be done. He could not—would not—leave Atem, his _other self_, to rot away in the Shadow Realm.

Joey and Tristan both gasped at this; although he and Téa had discussed it on the plane here, he hadn't had a chance to talk it over with them yet. He felt their eyes on him, but neither one said anything. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Téa's face remain set as if in stone.

"Yugi." Ishizu was still using that same sympathetic tone, and he knew he wouldn't like what was coming. "You know that's impossible as well."

"Impossible? Ishizu, do you know who you're talking to? Do you know how much of my life from the time I was _fifteen _has been _impossible_? I don't accept that. If there was a way to seal himself in the Millennium Puzzle in the first place, then there's a way to bring him back. There _has_ to be."

"The Millennium Items are gone."

"We're sitting in a room full of _archaeologists_, Ishizu! Digging up buried artifacts from the past is _what we do_!"

"Do you have any idea what you're suggesting, Yugi?" Her voice became firm once more. "You know how the Millennium Items were created. You know the darkness they've unleashed. You took upon yourself the task of returning the Millennium Items and fighting the Ceremonial Battle to seal that darkness away once and for all. And now you propose to bring it back?"

"It's being brought back anyway!" He looked around the room at Téa, Tristan, and Joey. "They were there on that island, they'll tell you, in case you don't believe it. The darkness doesn't _need_ the Millennium Items, Ishizu, but Atem does! I _won't_ leave him there! I _will_ find a way!"

"I'm with you, Yuge," Joey said suddenly, gripping his shoulders from behind. "For Atem."

Tristan nodded. "Me, too, man, all the way."

Téa said nothing, but her face was resolute and he already knew where she stood.

Ishizu looked up at Yugi from her chair behind her desk, their eyes locked for a long time, a battle of wills. Joey and Tristan immediately closed their mouths and lowered their eyes deferentially, and no one else dared make a sound, not even Professor Julius. At last, Ishizu spoke. "I cannot help you in this, Yugi."

"Fine. All I ask is access to your library. Your _personal_ library."

"I am quite certain Pegasus has compiled a rather extensive library—"

"Not like yours."

She regarded him a moment longer, then gave a brief nod of her head. "You may use anything you wish. Take whatever you would like back to California—"

"I'm not going back to California! I need to be near Kul Elna, near the Millennium Items—"

"Yugi, do you mean to unearth _all_ the Millennium Items?"

Yugi flinched at Bakura's voice—he'd all but forgotten anyone but his three closest friends and Ishizu were in the room—and shame washed over him. He wasn't the only one with a very personal stake in this. "Bakura, I—"

"It's not that I'm disagreeing with you. I think you're right to want to do whatever you can for Atem, and I will do anything I can to help. But I'd really rather the Ring stay where it is."

"Bakura, I'm so sorry, I didn't… I wouldn't…."

"I know. I just thought it worth mentioning."

Another uncomfortable silence settled on the room, and Marik reached over and put a hand on Bakura's arm.

"Ryou," Ishizu said, her voice gentle and compassionate once more. "He would be long gone by now. Even the strongest souls cannot survive very long in the Shadow Realm."

"Yeah, but he, like, _made_ the Shadow Realm," Tristan said, and they all fell into another uneasy silence. Even Professor Julius and Sara, the former of whom looked disgruntled and the latter completely lost, waited for Yugi and Bakura to settle this between them.

"I just want the Puzzle," Yugi said quietly. He glanced at Marik. "And maybe the Rod, since that belonged to Seto. But only if it's the only way. I promise, Bakura. I will not let him come back."

Bakura looked at him with a sad smile. "You do whatever you need to do to help Atem, Yugi. You have my absolute support."

Yugi dipped his head to Bakura in grateful bow before turning back to Ishizu. "I think maybe it's best if we go back to California after all, if I can take some of your texts with me."

"Of course. Take a few days to go through my library and choose the texts you'll need, then go home, and perhaps between that and Pegasus's library, you will find what you seek." She paused and looked to the couch where Marik and Bakura were sitting, then to Odion and Rashida. "And… there is something I may be able to do for you after all."

Yugi raised his eyebrows, questioning.

"There is a ritual. It is complicated and will require four of us to sit vigil—two each in Atem's and Seto's tombs—every night for six hours starting at midnight. It won't bring them back, but it will strengthen their spirits, allowing them to endure the Shadow Realm longer." She looked again to Marik and Bakura, and then Odion and Rashida. "Marik will be returning to Greece—"

"No, Sister, I can stay. It doesn't make sense for me to go back to Greece now with all that has happened."

"Marik, you know that is not true. While I understand your interests in this matter, the reasons you were needed in Greece remain. It is best if you go back. But if Ryou, Odion and Rashida would consent to help…."

"Of course," Bakura said readily.

Odion exchanged glances with Rashida. She nodded at him and he said to Ishizu, "I am always at the service of the Pharaoh, as is my wife."

Ishizu turned back to Yugi. "This much I can do. For the Pharaoh."

"Thank you, Ishizu." Once again Yugi bowed his head in gratitude.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing," Professor Julius said, unable to rein in his exasperation any longer. "You are talking myths and fairy tales when we have something crucial at stake here! The historical value of what has been damaged or gone missing is immeasurable! Ishizu Ishtar, you are the Director of the Egyptian Bureau of Archaeology! You have more important things to do than waste six hours of the night every night on myths and fairy tales! And you, Yugi Mutou!" He wheeled angrily to face Yugi. "You are a student of Egyptology! Your first priority is to the historical integrity of the tombs and the artifacts found there!"

Yugi looked at the professor with a gaze that did not falter. "Yes, I am a student of Egyptology, but it's not all that I am. It's not even the most important thing that I am. There are many, many words that describe who I am. Student. Duelist. Grandson. Friend. But right now, in _this_ situation, the only word that defines me and determines what I must do, Professor, the only word that means anything to me at all is _aibou_."


	20. Dark Magic

**20. Dark Magic**

Sara's brow furrowed as she turned the foreign word over in her mind, trying to make sense of what Yugi had just said as he spun on his heel and walked out through the French doors into the garden beyond, ending any further debate on the matter. Not that she had understood a word of it in the first place. His three friends—the blond who had been standing behind the couch, the MP, and the brunette girl—walked out behind him in show of solidarity.

She leaned over to Ryou Bakura. "What's _'aibou'_? Do you know what that means?"

The Japanese-Englishman with hair as white as her own nodded. "It's Japanese. It more or less means _partner_."

Sara sat back in her seat. Partner. What an odd word to use in this context. She considered the Japanese word again alongside its English translation, examining it, trying to decipher how it connected Yugi to this situation. _Whose_ partner?

The whole conversation between Yugi and Ishizu had been bizarre. Besides the whole interchange with Bakura that might as well have been in Japanese as well for all she understood of it, they had actually been talking about Atem's and Seto's spirits as if the ancient Egyptian beliefs were _fact_, that the mutilation of their bodies really had sent their souls to hell, or more correctly, to Duat. Although she had been the one to spell that out, she had meant it metaphorically, a description of the intent of whoever did this, not something that she believed actually happened. But then Yugi and Ishizu had discussed it as if it were real, and it was clear to her that the idea of their souls in Duat caused him so much pain he couldn't bear it.

Images from Seto's tomb as she found it that night flashed through her mind. The truth was, _she_ couldn't bear it. _Partner_, she thought, and for some reason it made her think of the dragon and the man from her dreams, and it made a strange sort of sense to her.

_Partner_.

Before she realized what she was doing, she was on her feet and heading toward the garden.

"Sara?" asked a startled Professor Julius, who had just been getting ready to launch into one of his patented diatribes about scholarly objectivity. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going out there to offer to help them. I suspect not all of them can read hieroglyphics and hieratic texts, so Yugi could probably use additional help."

Her mentor stared at her, sputtering a moment. "You are _my_ student, Sara! You have your own work to do here."

"I'm on holiday, Professor. If I choose to spend my holiday in California rather than Luxor, that is my choice to make. I shall be back at the start of the term."

Without waiting for his reply, she stepped out into the garden. She half expected him to come after her; he could be quite adamant and didn't like being challenged, she knew, but he did not follow her. Turning her attention away from the office, she traveled down the path that wound through the private garden until she found the four friends clustered together on a bench. She hesitated; the way they were gathered together around Yugi, they seemed like an impenetrable barrier, a city walled unto itself, closed to all outsiders. She stood for a moment, not sure what to do, until Yugi caught her eye. Even though she had only met him not an hour before, she could tell that he did not normally look this tired and worn, as if he were a mere shell from which anything vital and alive had been sucked out through a straw. But he gave her a smile, one that didn't quite look real or touch his eyes, but which seemed at least to come from a habit of being kind, and she took that as an invitation to approach them.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to intrude, but I was wondering if… that is to say… I would like to help you if I could."

He raised his eyebrows. "Help me?"

She nodded. "I can help you look for a ritual that would bring their spirits back from Duat. I'm on holiday and I've always wanted to visit the United States." She suddenly felt self-conscious, realizing how presumptuous her offer was. Yugi's friends were all sort of scrutinizing her and exchanging glances as if trying to determine whether she was fit to join their exclusive club, which wasn't helping. "I just, well, I don't know how many of you can read ancient texts, but I thought maybe another pair of eyes would be useful."

Yugi tilted his head, studying her. "Why would you want to? You don't believe in this stuff, do you?"

"Yeah, your teacher seemed to think it was all pretty stupid," the tall one—the MP—said.

She wasn't sure what to say to that. "Of course I don't believe it, but that doesn't make it stupid. What you said, Yugi, it struck a nerve with me. Before, too, when you mentioned that you find it difficult to be dispassionate about this era. I feel the same way."

He frowned, then shook his head. "I really appreciate the offer, but I think we've got it covered between me and Professor Hawkins and his granddaughter."

"Didn't the professor say he was taking his granddaughter to Boston until the start of term? I'd need to be back in Cairo for my own spring term, but I could certainly fill the void until the professor returns."

"It's a lot more… complicated than it sounds, and I'd rather not get anyone new who isn't already mixed up in everything involved."

The girl beside Yugi nodded in agreement. "Trust me. You _so_ don't want to get involved in anything to do with the Shadow Realm."

She raised her eyebrow. "Shadow Realm?"

"Duat, more or less," Yugi said.

She thought it odd that they had their own name for Duat, and even odder that the ancient Egyptian mythological hell would make them uneasy. But it was the word 'involved' that she kept coming back to. She sat down on a bench across from them and leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees and her hands cupping her chin. "But I feel as if I already am involved, you see?"

His eyes narrowed and she felt like he was trying to decipher her the way he might a particularly difficult hieratic text. "What do you mean?"

She considered a moment how much she should tell them. "I'm not sure, really. I… I never intended to study Egyptology. When I started at Cambridge, I was on an Oriental Studies course, with a focus on Chinese Studies. But about halfway through my second year, I… developed an interest in ancient Egypt." She didn't tell them it was because she'd dreamt that she was a dragon flying about in ancient Egypt. No point in sharing _that_. "I attended a guest lecture by Professor Julius, and I was absolutely enthralled. It was a discourse on the pharaohs and their tombs and the mythology of ancient Egypt."

The blond, she couldn't remember his name, widened his eyes in surprise. "_That_ guy did a lecture on Egyptian _mythology_?"

"I know it may have sounded like he didn't care about any of that, but that's just how he is. Very logical, very objective."

Yugi nodded. "He and Professor Hawkins used to bicker like an old married couple when we were on our dig. He's a great guy, Joey, he just… well, think Kaiba as an archaeologist."

The blond—Joey—curled his lip. "That's not exactly helping me get the 'great guy' part there, Yuge."

"I don't mean his personality, I mean the whole 'I don't believe this nonsense' thing."

"So his lecture made you want to study Egyptology?" The girl gently redirected the conversation back to Sara.

"That's right. Fortunately for me, Egyptology is also under the Oriental Studies faculty at Cambridge, so it didn't set me back to change course halfway through my undergraduate degree. But anyway, a year ago, I came out here on winter holiday. I'd hoped to meet with Professor Julius, whom I'd already arranged to study with in Cairo once I graduated, but he was on that expedition with you lot." She nodded to Yugi. "So instead I toured around a bit on my own. Found myself in Giza and saw that tablet, the one with the carving that resembles you. I… I don't know what it was, and Professor Julius would scoff at me for being a romantic like Professor Hawkins, but the only way I can describe it is that I fell in love. Something about that era spoke to me like no other era had. The two figures engaged in some sort of ritual battle, it was so powerful."

She paused, struggling to explain the experience she'd had when she'd first seen the stone carvings depicting a battle between a dragon and a wizard, eerily similar to her dreams. The dragon and the figure under it in particular had captivated her, reminding her so much of her dream-dragon-self and the boy and their connection, but that was something else she wasn't about to share. "Something about it was just… magical."

This seemed to cause a strange reaction among the group of friends, all of them starting and trading looks with each other that she couldn't interpret. She flushed, hearing Professor Julius's admonishment in her head: _we are scholars, not romantics, Sara! _"It sounds silly, I know—"

She wished she hadn't said so much, but Yugi suddenly narrowed his eyes with a look that seemed to go right through her. "Who are you?"

She frowned. "What do you mean, 'who am I?' I'm Sara Drake, master's student in Egyptology under—"

"I know that." He waved impatiently, and she was taken aback by the abrupt change in his manner. Where he'd seemed diffident, shy even, when they'd first been introduced, he now suddenly had adopted a lazy, almost arrogant demeanor. "I mean who are you? Do you have some connection to the Millennium Items?"

"The Millennium Items? Why do you keep going on about the Millennium Items?"

"Because they're key to everything that happened here. What do you know about them?"

"Just that they were talismans the pharaoh and his court wore or carried on their person during that era, and that they were believed to have magical properties."

"But you have no connection to them?"

"Connection to them? I'm not sure I understand." She shifted, uncomfortable under his intense scrutiny. "I just wanted to offer my help, but if you have a problem with that, I—"

"No, I'm sorry. You're right, I'm being rude," he said quickly, and as abruptly as it had come, the haughtiness was gone and he looked troubled instead. "It's just… you look familiar, and when it comes to these particular pharaohs, magic and the Millennium Items go hand-in-hand."

"I didn't mean magic in the _literal_ sense. I'm just trying to explain why I want to help you. Why I… why I _need_ to help you. This… these pharaohs mean something to me, even if I can't explain why. Why else would I end up in Seto's tomb when I had my bout of sleepwalking? And… it was rather horrifying. I… I don't know why someone would do this, but—" She looked at the MP. "I'm sorry, what was your name again?"

"Tristan."

"Yes, Tristan, thank you. What you said about revenge and 'hate crimes' so perfectly describes what I saw. What it _felt_ like. So, I don't know. I want to do something. What you propose, Yugi, finding a way to make up for the desecration in a way that would have honored Seto and Atem and their beliefs, that just feels like the right thing to do, and I'd like to help if I may."

He regarded her with astonishingly wide round eyes, then gave her a short bow of the head that struck her as very Japanese. "But you need to understand about the Millennium Items first. And I'm not talking about history, I'm talking about _really_ understanding. I used to own one of the Millennium Items."

"Really? I wasn't aware that any replicas had been made."

"Not a replica. An actual artifact from Atem's tomb. It was a Puzzle, or at least it was by the time I had it. Originally it was the Millennium Pyramid worn by the pharaoh. My grandfather found it in the sixties and gave it to me when I was a kid. I finished putting it together when I was fifteen."

She gaped at him, not sure what to say. "He… he _took_ an artifact from a _tomb_?"

"Yeah, I know, technically he was a grave robber—"

"_Technically_?"

Yugi sighed. "I don't suppose it would help if I said Atem gave it to him."

She blinked. "I… how am I supposed to answer that?"

He shrugged, maddeningly impassive. "I don't have it anymore, so there's not much point in trying to rationalize it anyway. Three years ago, I collected all seven Millennium Items and returned them to a shrine in Kul Elna. The shrine collapsed and they were buried."

She narrowed her eyes. "You mentioned to Ms. Ishtar the possibility of digging them up if you found a ritual that required them."

"Hopefully not all of them, just the Puzzle and maybe the Rod. But if you're proposing to help me, then you need to know what you're actually offering to do. Certain Millennium Items, particularly the Puzzle and the Ring, were believed to have the ability to capture a person's soul, we think maybe the _Ka_ specifically, and seal that soul within the Item. When those Items are then worn or possessed by someone with—" He paused, seeming to choose his words carefully "—with a connection to them, then the souls can be released here."

"Define 'here.'"

"Our world, as opposed to either the afterlife or Duat."

She shook her head. "I've never heard this myth before."

"I know. This is one of the things you'll find in Ishizu's library that you won't find anywhere else."

"Why would she hoard historical—?"

"Sara, we can debate the ethics of archaeology, or you can let me finish," he said in that authoritative, bordering-on-arrogant voice again. "Ishizu is Egyptian. This isn't just history for her, it's in her blood. The point is, I don't know if there exists a ritual that will send the spirit of a mutilated body back to the afterlife. That would be my first goal, but if I can't find that, then what I do hope to find is a ritual that will allow me to use the Millennium Puzzle to bring him… them back _here_."

He'd said something like this inside, too, she realized. "What does that mean, exactly?"

He took a deep breath, exchanging an odd glance with the brunette girl. "Not a whole lot for anyone but me."

The girl flashed him a look that gave Sara the distinct impression she was his girlfriend. It was an odd combination of hurt, worried, admonishing, and protective. She leaned toward him. "Yugi, what about the other Seto? He was never actually sealed in the Millennium Rod or anything. Do you think—?"

"I don't know, Téa. I don't know what sort of ritual we might find. I hope we can help them both."

Joey snorted. "You know Kaiba won't get involved anyway."

"I'll bet Mokuba could talk him into it," the girl—Téa—said.

"Maybe, but still, I—"

Sara coughed, cutting him off. "I'm sorry, but you lot lost me back at 'bring them back here.' Just what exactly are you trying to tell me about the Millennium Items?"

"Sorry." Yugi took another breath, looking tired once more. "The thing is, anything involving the Millennium Items tends to get ugly pretty fast."

"Ugly how?"

"Monsters, dark magic, side excursions into the Shadow Realm," Tristan said.

There was that strange term for Duat again. "And you lot believe this stuff?"

They didn't answer, neither confirming nor denying, which in and of itself spoke volumes. "You people are rather strange."

For some reason, this seemed to break the tension and they all actually cracked smiles. "Yeah, we get that a lot," Yugi said. Then the smile was gone again as if it had never been there. "Sara, if you really want to help, then maybe you should. I don't know how, but you seem to be a part of all this. But things _will_ get strange, much stranger than just us talking about things that don't make any sense. The Millennium Items are dangerous, and dark. You have to understand before you get involved."

She thought of her dragon dreams and how they all led her here. "I woke up the other morning standing in a desecrated tomb. It doesn't get much darker than that."

They all traded looks again, this time more ominous ones, and she found herself shuddering. Yugi looked at her again with those wide, troubled eyes. "I wish that were true."


	21. Small Talk

**21. Small Talk**

Mai was exhausted by the time she returned to her hotel room after the second day of the tournament. Between her nightmare and making an idiot of herself with Valon that morning, she was more than a little irritable, despite her win and advancement to tomorrow's quarterfinals. Rebecca was spending time with Mokuba, so Mai took advantage of the solitude in their luxury suite and took a long, hot bubble bath in the huge Jacuzzi tub, hoping to soothe her frayed nerves.

Mostly she was missing Joey, so when the phone rang, she was grateful for the extension right next to the tub.

"Yo, gorgeous," he said when she answered, and she instantly felt better just hearing his voice.

"'Yo,' yourself." She leaned back in the suds, cradling the phone between her shoulder and her ear. "How's it going down there? Yugi okay?"

There was a brief pause. "No, you first. Tell me about the tournament."

"That bad?"

He made sort of a gurgling sound. "Mai, I spent most of the day trying not to puke on my own shoes, so give me a sec and tell me about the tournament first, okay?"

It worried her how tired he sounded. Joey was normally a thoroughly exasperating bundle of energy. Forcing some cheer into her voice, she said, "What's to tell? I totally rocked, made it to the quarterfinals, of course. So did Rebecca."

"Tell me Kaiba lost." The sentiment was typical Joey, but the words lacked his usual bite.

"Dream on. Oh, but the seeding has us facing each other in the championship, so I'll give him an extra special ass-kicking for you."

"Sounds good. How's Serenity? The sleazeballs aren't all over her now that I'm not there looking out for her, are they?"

Mai rolled her eyes. "You'd be proud of Duke, actually. I think he's channeling you. Either that or he's full of himself being the only guy with five women, if you count his little coed and her friend. He barks like a rabid dog if anyone gets within a hundred yards of any of us. Well, Mokuba's allowed to hang out with Rebecca, but then Duke hovers."

"Good for him. So long as he's not turning it into an opportunity—"

"Oh please, he stopped hitting on Serenity months ago, and the coed would claw his eyes out if he tried. Quit being a big baby."

"Yeah, yeah." He paused again. "So… what about Valon?"

"He made it to the quarterfinals, too."

"I'm not talking about that, and you know it. He giving you any trouble?"

She considered her answer. Right up until she'd heard Joey's voice, she'd fully intended on telling him everything—the dream, the visit to Valon, the sort of truce they'd negotiated. But something in his tone warned her off. Whatever was going on down there in Egypt was huge, and she didn't want to add to that, not yet. "Let's just say Valon and I came to an understanding."

"What's that supposed to mean?" The tiredness was gone from his voice, but she wasn't thrilled with the antagonism that replaced it.

"It means we're gonna give each other wide berth, that's what it means. Not to mention Duke snarling if he even walks by, so don't get your shorts in a knot, Wheeler."

"I—" He stopped and she could almost feel his teeth grinding over the phone. "I just wanna make sure you're okay with everything."

"It sounds to me like you've got enough on your plate without worrying about me. Valon's not a problem, 'kay, hon? Now tell me what's going on down there. How's Yugi?"

Joey heaved a long sigh. "He's… I don't know, he's pretty crushed. We all are. And he's kinda having these weird mood swings, like a girl PMSing or something—"

She glared at the receiver. "Be very careful about the metaphors you choose."

"But you know what I mean, right? He'll go from all… I dunno, sorta flat and tired, which is pretty much how the rest of us are feeling, to all of a sudden growling at everyone like the Pharaoh when he's dueling Kaiba or something. It's a little like how he was when Evan blasted Téa. Or like when—" He stopped short.

"What?"

"When the Orichalcos had Yugi's soul. But considering… everything… he's holding it together I guess."

"How bad was it at the tomb?"

Another long pause. "It was bad. I… Jesus, I don't know where to begin. The… he was our friend, you know? I dueled with the guy. Joked around with him. Fought beside him. But the tomb was so _old_. It just… I couldn't make it connect in my head that was… what they did…"

She wished she could pull him into her arms. "Didn't that make it easier? Like it wasn't really him?"

"I don't know. It should've, I guess. But… it was just bad for all of us. You know how dark magic is. And if I think about it much more than this, Mai, I'm seriously gonna toss my cookies on Ishizu's fancy Persian rug, so don't ask for details. Now we're just trying to figure out how to get him back, and Yugi's talking about maybe having to dig up the Millennium Items again."

She sucked in her breath. "That can't be good."

"No, probably not, but it's better than the alternative."

"Do you think that's what Ramesses was going for?"

"I don't know. Maybe. But it doesn't matter, 'cause to hell with all the magic and mystic crap, and to hell with Ramesses. This is the _other Yugi_ we're talking about." His voice cracked a little. "He was our friend. We can't just leave him in the Shadow Realm, you know?"

She thought of the hourglass and the sand. "Yeah, I know."

"You okay? You sound tired."

Once more, she considered telling him about the dream. "Yeah, I am tired. I…."

"You what?"

She closed her eyes. "I miss you. When are you coming home?"

"I'm not sure. Professor Hawkins is going back to London tomorrow morning so he and Rebecca can fly out to Boston together, but the rest of us are gonna stay a couple more days. Yugi spent all day today going through Ishizu's library, picking out books and scrolls and junk that he thinks might have a way to get the Pharaoh back. We're gonna pack most of 'em up and ship 'em out tomorrow evening, and I think Téa's gonna try and get us a flight back sometime in the afternoon on New Year's Day. So with the time change, that should get us back to San Francisco… a week ago last Wednesday."

She snorted. "Smart ass. Your new math notwithstanding, we'll probably beat you back. With everything going on, there isn't much point in staying once the tournament's over. We're gonna head back sometime on New Year's Day, too, but since we're not flying commercial, I doubt it will take as long as your flight."

"Don't remind me." He let out a frustrated growl. "Man, this just sucks! I can't believe we're missing our first New Year's together. I was gonna take you out at sunrise New Year's morning for _Shogatsu_."

"See, that's just what I was talking about with your Japanese holidays. It's a crime against nature to get up earlier than noon on New Year's Day."

"Who said anything about _getting_ up? I was gonna _keep_ you up."

She nestled closer to the phone and put a low, sultry purr into her voice. "Now that sounds like an offer I can't refuse. Consider it a date when you get home."

"Count on it, the second I walk in the door. But speaking of dates, I don't have to kill anyone for taking you to New Year's Eve party tomorrow night, do I?"

She smiled, happy to hear a little bit of the old Joey. "No—not that I haven't tried. Even _I _can't get a date with Duke hanging around. I've really gotta get a leash for that boy."

"Remind me to buy him a drink when we get home."

"You're underage when we get home."

"Only for a few more weeks."

"True. Then I won't feel like such a cradle robber."

"Yeah, but I'll always be younger and prettier."

"Younger and stupider, but _never_ prettier."

"Yeah, you're right. You're the fairest of them all," he said, gallantly conceding defeat.

"And have I mentioned that right now I'm in the tub wearing nothing but bubbles?"

There was sort of a strangled sound on the other end of the line. "Oh man, you're killing me here." Then his voice took a more serious tone. "I love you, Mai. I really am totally crazy about you, you know that?"

She closed her eyes. "I know. And back at'cha, kiddo."

As she hung up the phone, she wrapped herself in his words, cocooning herself in them, hoping they would keep the dreams at bay when she went to sleep.

But they didn't. When she found herself in that vacant lot in San Francisco after the sand and the hourglass, Joey told her, _I love you, Mai_, as the Orichalcos took his soul, and that only made it all worse.

* * *

It was hard for Joey not to be bitter. It was bad enough that it was New Year's Eve and he was spending it packing up boxes of ancient scrolls instead of at a swanky party with his girlfriend, but it was made worse by the fact that he still felt like his stomach was going to give at any moment, and all he wanted to do was crawl back into Ishizu's den and curl up on the couch to sleep for another hour or ten. But the texts had to be shipped out that evening if they were going to arrive January 2. Ishizu was paying an outrageous fee to have most of them express shipped by special courier so they wouldn't get held up in customs and would arrive in San Francisco about twelve hours after they did. The rest were coming with them on the plane.

There were hundreds of different kinds of texts—ancient papyrus scrolls that were extremely delicate and had to be handled with care; huge volumes that had been hand copied from older scrolls or inscriptions on the walls of some tomb or another; journals of rites and rituals kept by the Tomb Keepers themselves; a few volumes translated from the original hieroglyphics or hieratic into Arabic, English, and Japanese—and they all had to be sorted and packed carefully so that nothing would get damaged in transit. Joey, Téa, and Sara Drake were in Ishizu's living room, cataloguing and packing everything Yugi had selected from her home library while he and Tristan had gone to the museum to do the same with the texts Ishizu kept in her office. The Ishtars, Bakura, and Professor Julius, meanwhile, were spending most of their time at the tombs sorting through the mess and trying to see what, if anything, was salvageable. And that, Joey decided, was the one thing that made spending New Year's Eve buried in a pile of dusty old books and scrolls bearable—at least it kept him away from the tombs.

Sara took charge of the packing, organizing all the texts and providing Téa with English translations of various ancient Egyptian titles for a packing list so that they would be able to find everything when they got home. She also personally packed the most delicate and ancient papyrus scrolls in special protective cases—those they would carry themselves on their flight back rather than ship—while Joey took care of the larger volumes and lugged boxes around. As they worked, Sara made small talk with them, discussing the differences between _Oshogatsu_ and the western New Year's holiday, and asking general questions about Japanese culture, comparing it to the Chinese customs she'd studied before switching her major to Egyptology.

"Okay." Sara set the last book down on the pile Joey was packing and brushed her hands. "There's something else I've been curious about, if you'll forgive me for being presumptuous. How is it that if all of you are Japanese, three of you have English names?"

"Oh, we have Japanese names, too. Japan's not much of a—" Joey looked to Téa, who was sitting on the floor. checking a box he'd just loaded up against one of her lists. "What's the thing again they say in America about all the different cultures?"

"Melting pot."

"Yeah, that's it. Japan's not much of a melting pot, but we're from a town that has more foreigners than most. A lot of us have at least one parent from somewhere else or were born overseas. American ex-pats, mostly, but some Brits like Bakura's mom, and some from other places, too. Almost everyone speaks English, even if they're full Japanese, like Yugi's family. So it's kind of a local thing for kids with American dads to have English names, too. When we're speaking English, we use our English names, and when we speak Japanese, we use our Japanese names. It's pretty weird, but we're so used to it we don't think about it much."

Sara cocked her head. "How curious. Your parents are American, then?"

Téa put her list at the top of the box, the stood up and stretched her arms. "American fathers, Japanese mothers. And my family lived in America for a couple of years when I was really little. Joey's did, too, for a little longer than mine. Tristan's visited a bunch of times—his dad moved back there after his parents divorced—but I don't think he ever lived there until now. Americans mangle our Japanese names, so it's just easier to use the English ones."

"Ah, well that explains why you speak English with American accents."

Téa coughed and gave Joey a sideways look. "Some worse than others."

"Hey! What's that s'posed to mean?"

"Nothing." She looked away, her face alight with mock innocence.

Sara stifled a laugh. "So what are your—_oooh_! How absolutely _stunning_!" Out of nowhere, she threw herself at Joey, catching him completely off guard as she grabbed his shirt, knocking him backwards a step.

"Uh… thanks? But, uh, as flattered as I am, you should know I have a girlfriend—"

"I think she's talking about your necklace, lamebrain." Téa was smirking at him, and Joey saw that Sara was, in fact, holding the Red-Eyes Black Dragon pendant hanging around his neck.

"What? Oh yes, so sorry." Sara blushed, backing off slightly, but she didn't let go of the necklace. "I just didn't notice it before, and I'm mad about dragons, you see."

"Oh, yeah, sure." _She's got the mad part right anyway._ He backed away a little, but she followed, examining the figurine more closely.

"This dragon is just brilliant! It looks familiar, but I don't recognize it from any specific mythology. What is it?"

"Uh…" Joey still felt a little off balance. "It's a Red-Eyes Black Dragon."

"Well that's an apt name, I suppose." She turned the tiny ebony dragon over in her hands. "I've never heard of it, though."

"It's a Duel Monster. Sort of my signature card."

Her forehead creased. "Duel Monsters? Oh yes, that card game. There are a lot of dragons in that game, are there?"

"Yeah, along with other monsters. Here." He reached into his jacket pocket for his deck case, the fact that she was acting freaky forgotten in his excitement over getting to show off his deck to a newbie. "Besides Red-Eyes, I have a couple of other dragons in my deck."

She finally released the necklace as he shuffled through his cards for his dragons. "Red-Eyes is my favorite, but Baby Dragon here is pretty special to me, and if I use my Time Wizard on him, he grows up to be Thousand Dragon. And I just added Dragon Dwelling in the Cave to my deck a couple months ago. He's got awesome defense." He pulled out the four cards and showed them to her. "There are a whole bunch of other dragons, too. Yugi's got a couple in his deck—Winged Dragon Guardian of the Fortress and Curse of Dragon. And two of his god cards are dragons, but he don't take them out of his safe deposit box in Japan. Oh, and you woulda loved Timeaus, Critius, and Hermos. Man, I wish we coulda kept those cards."

She took the cards from him and looked at them, holding up Baby Dragon, Thousand Dragon, and Dragon Dwelling in the Cave in turn. "Well, these are nice enough, but this…." She examined the Red-Eyes card more closely. "I don't know what it is about this dragon, but it's quite compelling."

"Why are you so interested in dragons?" Téa asked, and Sara looked up from cards.

"Oh, I don't know, I've just always fancied them. It's why I was on an Ancient Chinese Studies course before I took up Egyptology, although some of the medieval European and Scandinavian dragons are quite impressive as well. But no one does dragons quite like the Chinese." She looked back down at the Red-Eyes card, sighing with an admiration Joey had never seen in anyone who wasn't a duelist, as she handed the four cards back to him with some reluctance. "Still, this dragon, even if it's just from a game, it's powerful, isn't it? I can almost feel it."

"Yeah, it is." Joey put his deck back in its case. "You should learn to play Duel Monsters; you sound like you'd have a real knack for it. Get yourself a dragon deck."

"I've been telling her that for months." Professor Julius strode into the house with Ishizu close behind. "Found a dragon that interests you, Sara?"

"Yes, this Red-eyed Black Dragon—"

"Red-_Eyes_," Joey corrected her.

"Yes, it's quite lovely."

"I told you you would enjoy Duel Monsters. You should have Yugi teach you while you're in America. He's the world champion, I believe." The professor then walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "I came to say good-bye, Sara. I leave for Cairo later this evening. Have a safe trip to the United States."

"Professor, I know you don't approve—"

"It's not that I disapprove, Sara. I don't understand, perhaps, but I don't disapprove. You are an excellent student, and if you feel there is some value in researching ancient rituals, I wish you good luck. Just be back in Cairo for the spring term."

She gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you, Professor. Your support means a lot to me."

"And your dedication means a lot to me." He squeezed her shoulder, then turned to Joey. "Well, I was hoping to see Yugi before I left. Is he here?"

"He's at the museum with Tristan."

"Ah, too bad. Well, tell him I wish him well. Do keep me appraised, Ishizu."

"Yes, of course, Professor. Happy New Year."

"Yes, yes, you as well. And you lot, have a safe flight tomorrow."

"Thank you, Professor," Téa said politely. "I'm sure Yugi will be sorry he missed you."

"Oh, that's all right. Our paths will cross again. Well, a Happy New Year to you all. Here's hoping it brings resolution to the crimes of the old."

* * *

**Author's note—a small apology. **I mentioned in the warnings that I use the dub names because I learned them first, but since becoming familiar with the manga and the subtitled Japanese anime, I've become more and more annoyed with the change in names. Because my other stories already used them, I felt obliged to continue, but I had to indulge myself with a little fanwanking as to how it could be possible for Japanese kids to have English names. Yeah, I know it wouldn't happen in the real Japan, but then neither would the spirit of a three-thousand-year-old pharaoh come from an ancient Egyptian Puzzle to share a body with a high school student, so… yeah. Forgive the lameness. 


	22. A New Year

**22. A New Year**

Ishizu, Bakura, Odion, and Rashida were just returning from the tombs, where they had completed their second night of the vigil that was supposed to sustain Atem's and Seto's souls in the Shadow Realm, when Téa, Yugi, Joey, and Tristan got up to see the sunrise on New Year's morning before heading out to the airport for their flight that afternoon. Téa was glad that Bakura decided to join them in observing the Japanese rite, and the five friends climbed to the top of a small hill behind the Ishtars' house to wait for the sun to come up. It felt to Téa like a dark parody of Christmas morning, when they'd sat on the balcony of their penthouse in San Francisco, fondly reminiscing about their departed friend. _Oshogatsu_ was supposed to be a joyful time, the birth of a clean new year, a fresh start. But all any of them could feel was loss and death instead.

Bakura seemed the most conflicted out of all of them. Although he didn't have a personal attachment to Atem the way the four of them did—on the contrary, his own dark counterpart had been Atem's mortal enemy—Téa could tell he was worried about how Atem's spirit might even yet be connected to the Spirit of the Ring, and that any such connection could prevent them from helping him. Bakura took an undue amount of responsibility for the havoc his darker half had wreaked while possessing him and, like Yugi, he retained many of the memories that hadn't really been his own after his darker half's departure. It didn't help that Marik had gone back to Greece the night before, and Bakura was clearly missing him.

The other four were still in varying stages of shock after seeing the tomb—the curse side of the blessing/curse that had been their deep and possibly magical connection to the other Yugi. None of them had slept well since arriving in Egypt, and that wasn't exactly helping them spring back. Of all of them, Tristan seemed the best off, looking merely tired and drawn. Joey had been ill ever since the tombs, to the point of having trouble eating—something Téa had never seen in Joey before—and being so tired that whenever his help wasn't needed, he would hole up in Ishizu's study and sleep. Téa, usually the cheerleader of the group, the one who gave the stirring speeches about friendship and sticking with it and never giving up, felt numb, like someone else had burrowed into her brain and set her on autopilot, walking her through the motions, but not letting her actually _do_ anything substantial.

Yugi, naturally, was by far the worst. The somewhat erratic moodiness of their first day in Luxor had given way to something Téa found profoundly more disturbing. He seemed to have retreated into himself in a way she hadn't seen him do since the early days of their friendship, when she was the only one who would hang out with him—and that only occasionally—and he would use his games and puzzles to shield himself from the abuse of his classmates. He barely said two words to anyone, and when he did, it was often a barked instruction about the books they'd been packing, or to lay out an organizational plan for attacking the huge amounts of information once they got home. She also was pretty sure he hadn't gotten any sleep since they'd left London.

The first rays of the sun came over the horizon, the _hatsu-hinode_ or first sunrise of the year. A new birth. Téa took a deep cleansing breath. Well, dammit, it _was_ a new year. What had happened to Atem, and to Seto, that was the _old_ year. It was done. _This_ year would begin with them making it right.

_"__Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu,"_ she said with quiet determination to her friends. The traditional Japanese New Year greeting didn't translate readily into English, but it spoke of darkness giving way to light, and that's exactly what _would_ happen. They would see to that.

Bakura smiled at her. _"Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu."_

"Yeah." Joey nodded, seeming to catch her meaning. "Yeah, that's right. _Akemashite Omedetou_."

"_Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu_, Yugi." Téa touched his arm.

_"Kochira koso."_ He shifted slightly to move away from her touch.

Téa clenched her fist and pulled her hand away, looking around to see if anyone had noticed the uncharacteristic response, and was grateful that no one had. Yugi was always polite even beyond the Japanese concept of polite, and he would always repeat the full formal New Year's greeting rather than reply what amounted to _same here_, even though technically it wasn't improper.

The physical slight was even more unlike him, and harder not to take personally. Even taking into account his general withdrawal from everyone the past couple days, he seemed to be pulling back from her in particular more than the rest. Their talk on the plane when he'd wept in her arms was the last time they'd held each other, and she hadn't even been able to so much as touch his hand since the day before yesterday. She knew it had to do with what he'd said on the plane, how Atem confused things in their relationship, and she wanted to understand, to be there for him, to help him work through everything he was feeling and to comfort him. He didn't seem to want even that much from her, however, and as much as she tried not to, she couldn't help but feel stung by it. He had _always_ come to her when he needed someone to lean on.

Except… that wasn't really true, either. Yugi was at heart too much of an introvert to ever reach out to anyone, unless it was to offer something they needed from him. He never asked anyone for anything for himself, not ever, not in the entire decade plus that she'd known him. In the early days of their childhood friendship, when she'd still been more worried about her popularity and the perceptions of others to be anything close to the consistently true friend he deserved, he'd wait silently in the background for her to come back to him, and when she did, he always took her back without reproach. Later, when she'd gotten over herself and started being a real friend, he would accept whatever help and support she had to offer, but he would never, ever ask for it.

That same reluctance to ask anything of others had carried over to their physical relationship as well. While he'd always accepted her advances readily enough, he never made the first move. Like everything else in their relationship, though he wanted her presence, he never really seemed to feel worthy of asking for it.

But now he didn't want her presence, or her support, or her touch. Her help in finding a way to save Atem, yes. But her emotional support? That he actively rejected, and it was hard for her to separate how hurt she felt from her worry about how this was really quite uncharacteristic of him, and what exactly that might mean.

She sighed. Not an auspicious start for the New Year.

_"Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu."_ Ishizu came up behind them, climbing the hill where they sat, a velvet bag slung over her shoulder. "I hope I'm not intruding. I'd like to join you, if I may."

There was a general round of consent, and Ishizu sat down on the grass on next to Yugi, opposite Téa, and set her bag down beside her. "I confess I am not very familiar with traditional Japanese observances." She gave Bakura a wry smile. "Although I am trying to familiarize myself for my fiancé's sake."

Bakura grinned. "Don't let her fool you. She knows more than she lets on."

"I'd be surprised if she didn't," Tristan said.

"Well, for one thing, I wasn't sure if it was customary to give gifts for _Oshogatsu_."

"Just money for children." Joey raised his eyebrows and eyed her sack. "If you've got money in that bag, I've been told I'm pretty much a child at heart."

"No, you just have the mental processes of a child." Téa suddenly felt a little better. Joey still looked a little green, but at least he was able to make one of his usual annoying jokes. It was something, anyway. Now if only Yugi would crack a smile….

"Oh, well I suppose it's just as well. I really only have gifts for Yugi anyway."

"No, see, here's where you're confused, Ishizu. Yugi just _looks_ like a child." Joey smirked and gave Yugi an almost hopeful glance, Téa saw. So she wasn't the only one who had noticed Yugi's atypical behavior after all.

They were both disappointed, however, when the comment didn't get so much as a grunt from Yugi. He merely turned to Ishizu, his face blank. "That wasn't necessary, Ishizu."

"On the contrary, it is long overdue." She took her bag and placed it between herself and Yugi. Téa leaned over to see what was in the bag.

Ishizu didn't open it, however. "Not every important possession is put into a pharaoh's tomb when he dies. Some family heirlooms are passed down for future generations, particularly to daughters. As Atem had no daughter or any heir at all, any personal family items not interred with him would have been inherited by his cousin Seto, just as he inherited the throne. Eventually these items came to rest in the care of the Tomb Keepers' clan, which as you know, includes the Ishtar family."

Yugi's eyes widened in interest. "You have heirlooms that belonged to Atem?"

She nodded. "I should have turned them over to you when we first met, but I was reluctant to part with things that had been in my family for countless generations. It was hard enough to give up my Millennium Necklace."

Yugi's interest turned to a slight frown. "These don't belong to me, Ishizu. I'm not the Pharaoh. And Sara would say we're ethically bound to give them to the museum."

Ishizu gave a slightly condescending smile. "These are not archaeological finds, they are personal possessions of my family. I can choose to give them to whomever I wish, and I wish to give them to you. For _Oshogatsu_. So that you may have a new beginning to help you erase what has been done in the old year.

Joey slapped him on the back. "C'mon, Yuge, quit arguing and just check out the loot. I'm dying of curiosity here."

Ishizu slid the bag towards him. "It isn't much. There is no magical value to any of these items, nothing that will help you in your current quest. But I do think it will help you remember him."

Yugi opened the bag and emptied its contents onto the grass in front of him. Ishizu was right, there was nothing spectacular or impressive. It looked like a few household items and some sort of carved wooden box. But Yugi picked up each item with a reverence that Téa knew went beyond his interest as an Egyptologist. "This looks like a Kohl jar."

"What's that?" Tristan asked.

"The makeup the ancient Egyptians used to paint their eyes. And this is a jewelry box, I think." He held up the ornate wooden box for them to see.

"We think it belonged to the queen," Ishizu said.

Yugi blinked. "The… Atem's mother?"

Ishizu nodded.

He opened the box and took out the jewelry inside. There were a few rings and earrings, an amulet of some sort, and a rather simple yet elegant necklace. Slightly longer than a choker, it was a strand of gold beads alternating with red and blue stones that looked like jasper, turquoise, and a darker blue one Téa couldn't name. She leaned in to get a closer look. "Ooh, that's pretty."

Yugi held it up. "It looks like a betrothal gift."

"Yes, it likely was a betrothal gift from Aknamkanon to his queen." Ishizu pointed to the other jewelry. "And the rings and earrings were probably passed down to the queen from her mother and intended for the daughter she expected to have some day."

Yugi frowned. "In all the things we discovered when we went back into the Memory World, the one thing we never learned anything about was his mother. We never even found out her name or what happened to her."

"We are fairly certain she died when Atem was young, which would explain why he was an only child. It was unusual that Aknamkanon did not have other children with other wives and, of course, Aknamkanon himself died when Atem was little more than a teenager."

Yugi touched each piece of jewelry reverently, then put them all back into the box and closed the lid. He looked at the other items—a few pieces of pottery, a small statuette of a cat, something that looked like a wooden crocodile with moving jaws, and some sort of top.

"Dude, are those toys?" Tristan asked.

Yugi nodded then looked at Ishizu. "Atem's childhood toys? Why wouldn't they have been in the tomb?"

"He was too old for toys and would have no need for them in the afterlife. They would have been passed down to heirs. Why they were kept and not given to children in Seto's line, I do not know. But yes, they were most likely his toys."

"Toys, but no games." Yugi gave a sort of wistful half smile. "Never did outgrow games."

Ishizu smoothed out her skirt on the grass. "That is true; games were buried with him in the tomb."

He looked at her again. "Ishizu, I can't accept these. They belong in a museum."

"No, Yugi. They belong with someone who will cherish them for reasons that go beyond historical value." Her eyes glinted with a little mischief. "But I wouldn't mention them to Sara Drake or Professor Julius."

He considered this a moment, then gave a brief nod.

"_Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu_, Yugi," Ishizu said.

"_Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu_, Ishizu." Yugi smiled at her, and Téa hated herself for being torn between gratitude that Ishizu had brought him out of his funk, even just a little bit, and jealousy that she hadn't been able to do it herself.

She took a deep breath. _Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu_. Darkness giving way to light. _Please let the light come soon._

* * *

_To be continued in Part II: Standby Phase…_


End file.
